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UNIVERSITY  OF  PENNSYLVANIA 


THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF 

NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE 


BY 
DAVID  CLARK  iCABEEN 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE   GRADUATE  SCHOOL  IN 

PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR   OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  ROMANIC  LANGUAGES 


PHILADELPHIA 
1922 


UNIVERSn^    r.l    I't.WSVLVAMA 


THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF 

NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE 


BV 

DAVID  CLARK  \CABEEN 


A  thf:sis 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE    GRADUATE  SCHOOL  IN 

PARTIAL  FULFILLMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR    OF   PHILOSOPHY 

IN  ROMANIC  LANGUAGES 


PRINTKD   BY 

WBSTBKOOK   PrBLISHING  CO. 

PHILAOKLPHIA.   Pa. 

1922 


kCU^\ 


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24o3 


It  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  express  my 
appreciation  of  the  courtesy  which  M.  Ber- 
trand  has  shown  in  answering  my  frequent 
inquiries.  I  wish  also  to  thank  M.  Hugues 
LeRoux  and  M.  Arthur  Pellegrin  for  their 
assistance,  and  particularly  M.  Robert  Randau 
whose  letter  to  me  is  a  noteworthy  contribu- 
tion to  the  critical  estimate  of  the  work  of 
Louis  Bertrand. 

My  cordial  thanks  are  also  due  to  Professor 
W.  H.  Scheifley  of  the  University  of  Indiana 
for  his  generous  interest.  I  am  especially 
indebted  to  my  teachers  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania:  Professor  Hugo  A.  Rennert, 
Professor  Jean  B.  Beck  and  Professor  J.  P.  W. 
Crawford  for  their  many  suggestions  and 
friendly  encouragement  in  the  preparation  of 
this  work. 


ri22!>57 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 7 

I 
The  French  in  North  Africa 13 

II 

The  Renascence  of  National  Energy 25 

III 
Flaubert's  Salammho  as  a  Source  of  Inspiration  for  the  African  Novels  of 
Louis  Bertrand 32 

IV 

The  Life  and  Ideas  of  Louis  Bertrand 38 

V 
The  African  Novels  of  Louis  Bertrand 61 

VI 

The  Influence  of  Flaubert  upon  the  Style  and  the  Literary  Methods  of 
Louis  Bertrand 79 

VII 

A  Critical  Estimate  of  the  African  Novels  of  Louis  Bertrand 91 

VIII 
Conclusion 100 

A  List  of  the  Works  of  Louis  Bertrand 105 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  study  the  African,  or  more 
strictly  speaking,  the  Algerian  novels  of  Louis  Bertrand,  his 
ethnological,  economic  and  literary  doctrines,  and  their  applica- 
tion in  these  novels.  Early  in  the  course  of  his  study  of  M. 
Bertrand,  the  writer  of  this  paper  met  a  strikingly  clear  expression 
of  an  idea  which  was  gradually  taking  shape  in  his  own  mind. 
This  idea,  which  may  be  said  to  give  a  certain  unity  to  the 
present  essay,  should  here  be  quoted  in  full:  "Maurice  Barres 
et  Charles  Maurras  ont  travaille  parall^lement,  s4parement,  k 
edifier  tout  ou  partie  d'une  theorie  de  la  France.  .  .  .  du  double 
apport  critique  et  doctrinal  de  Maurice  Barres  et  de  Charles 
Maurras  quelques  elements  subsisteront,  qu'il  faudra  quelque 
jour  incorporer  a  un  systeme  frangais. 

Le  jour  venu  de  cette  synthese,  le  nom  de  M.  Louis  Bertrand 
ne  sera  point  oublie;  sa  part  de  construction  ne  sera  ni  la  moins 

originale  ni  la  moins  solide M.  Charles  Maurras  veille 

aux  frontieres  traditionnelles  de  la  latinite;  M.  Maurice  Barres 
assure  la  defense  de  nos  bastions  de  Test.  M.  Louis  Bertrand 
cherche  plus  loin  une  terre  a  proteger,  une  province  a  fortifier 
dans  le  dogme  frangais,  une  lutte  a  soutenir  pour  I'elargissement 
de  notre  civilization  et  Texpansion  de  notre  race.     II  franchit 

la  Mediterrante;  ses  bastions  a  lui  s'erigent  a  I'entree 

du  desert.  II  est  le  createur  et  le  prophete  d'un  imperialisme 
africain."  ^ 

The  critic  then  explains  the  idea  of  conquest  as  glorified  by 
Louis  Bertrand;  that  it  represents  a  purification  of  the  ancient 
instinct  which  drives  man  to  plunder  and  enslave  his  neighbor, 
and  that  it  is  victorious  over  misery,  disorder  and  the  forces  of 
inertia.  The  heroes  of  the  novels  of  M.  Bertrand  are  the  pion- 
eers sent  by  France  and  her  sister  Latin  countries  to  prepare  the 
uncultivated  domain  of  her  new  colonies;  they  are  adventurers 

^Lucien  Maury,  Louis  Bertrand,  imperialiste,  Revue  Bleue,  59th  year, 
June  18,  1921. 


8  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

Upon  whom  falls  the  rough  task  of  opening  roads  and  erecting 
cities.  At  first  the  novelist  is  principally  absorbed  by  the  pas- 
sionate and  somewhat  disordered  activity,  the  tireless  enthu- 
siasm, the  fermenting  sap  and  the  intemperate  ardor  whence 
is  to  be  born  a  new  people.  And  he  composes  the  Cycle  africain, 
which  is  a  new  Roman  de  V  energie  nationalc. 

The  invasion  of  Africa  by  the  Southern  European  peoples  is 
a  renewal  of  the  ancient  pressure  of  the  Latin  peoples  towards 
its  shores,  the  eternally  coveted  prize  of  the  Mediterranean 
races.  Thus  appears  the  traditional  argument  which  is  the 
indispensable  support  of  all  imperialism.  Louis  Bertrand 
develops  all  of  the  phases  of  this  idea  of  Latinity  from  its  deepest 
roots  in  far  distant  history  to  its  renascence  in  modern  French 
Africa;  a  land  now  richer,  more  beautiful  and  more  densely 
populated  than  it  ever  was  in  Roman  times.  ^ 

The  present  paper  opens  with  a  brief  historical  sketch  of 
the  establishment  and  extension  of  French  power  in  North 
Africa;  a  sketch  which  seems  desirable  on  account  of  the  impor- 
tant part  certain  events  of  colonial  history  such  as  the  Algesiras 
and  the  Agadir  incidents  played  in  the  renascence  of  energy 
from  1885  to  1914.  The  introduction  of  the  utterances  of 
certain  public  men  is  considered  as  one  of  the  best  means  of 
determining  the  national  sentiment  upon  the  questions  here 
discussed. 

The  following  chapter,  dealing  with  the  renascence  of  national 
energy  in  France,  only  aims  to  sketch  in  general  outlines  this 
important  movement.  It  consists  largely  of  a  summary  of  the 
more  important  doctrines  of  the  two  contemporary  writers  in 
whom  it  seems  to  have  culminated,  and  whose  theories  appear 
to  embody  many  of  its  most  salient  points.  A  thorough  account 
of  this  renascence  should  show  the  early  influence  of  Renan 
upon  Barr^s,  of  Taine  upon  Barres,  Bourget  and  many  others, 
and  of  Fustel  de  Coulanges  upon  Maurras.  A  whole  generation 
collaborated  in  the  movement:  Deroulede,  Drumont,  Brunetiere, 
Lemaitre,  L6on  Daudet  and  a  host  of  others  whose  names  are 

I  Ihid, 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE       9 

known  wherever  French  is  read.  The  doctrines  of  Barrds  and 
Maurras  have  been  selected  for  exposition  as  being,  possibly, 
the  most  typical,  the  most  widely  known  and  influential;  and 
also  because  of  the  fact  that  M.  Maury  has  linked  their  names 
with  that  of  Louis  Bertrand  as  forming  a  trilogy  of  great  workmen 
in  the  national  renascence. 

No  attempt  is  made  to  show  that  either  has  had  any  definite 
influence  upon  M.  Bertrand,  except  as  they  were  part  of  the 
movement,  for  no  such  influence  is  apparent.  In  fact  Louis 
Bertrand  expresses  a  vigorous  protest  against  the  Barresian 
doctrine  of  the  cult  of  "la  terre  et  les  morts"  when  he  says  that 
the  French  fatherland  is  not  where  the  dead  are  asleep,  as  some 
would  have  us  believe,  but  is  to  be  found  on  all  of  the  world's 
highways  where  pass  the  armies  and  fleets  of  France,  and  in  all 
of  the  countries  where  her  manufacturers  and  her  colonists  are 
developing  the  reserves  of  gold  and  energy  slowly  amassed 
upon  the  ancient  soil  of  their  native  land.  ^ 

The  question  of  influences,  with  their  innumerable  possible 
ramifications,  which  usually  offers  so  many  difficulties,  is  rela- 
tively simple  in  the  case  of  Louis  Bertrand,  for  he  himself  tells 
us  that  without  Salammbo  he  could  not  have  written  his  African 
novels.  From  the  moment  that  he  first  set  foot  on  African 
soil,  this  book  became  his  "livre  de  chevet."  He  accepted 
Flaubert's  interpretation  of  the  land,  and  through  it  he  came  to 
understand  the  irresistible  attraction  of  the  mysterious  South. 
Flaubert  is  the  one  author  to  have  a  marked  influence  upon 
Louis  Bertrand,  as  two  of  his  critics  have  so  justly  observed,' 
and  of  the  work  of  the  author  of  Salammbo,  only  such  ideas  as 
affect  the  African  novels  of  his  disciple  are  here  noted.  Flaubert 
understood  his  own  time  so  well,  believes  M.  Bertrand,  that  he 
realized  that  the  human  energy  which  was  more  and  more  with- 

^  La  Cina,  Preface,  p.  XI. 

*  Louis  Lefebvre,  Un  grand  Scrivain,  de  la  Mediterranee:  M.  Louis  Ber- 
trand.    Nouvelle  Revue  d'ltalie,  18th  year,  9th  series,  June  25,  1921. 

Fidus,  Silhouettes  contemporaines.  M.  Louis  Bertrand.  La  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes,  Vol.  63,  June  15,  1921. 


£0  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

drawing  itself  from  Europe,  as  from  a  body  already  marked 
by  death,  was  soon  to  concentrate  passionately  upon  the  Orient. » 
Possibly  this  idea  may  have  suggested  to  Louis  Bertrand  the 
conception  of  a  novel  of  energy  whose  scene  should  be  laid  in 
the  land  revealed  to  him  by  Salammbo. 

The  general  history  of  French  colonial  literature  has  been  so 
thoroughly  treated  as  to  render  even  a  short  survey  of  it  un- 
necessary here.  So  vast  is  this  field  that  a  lifetime  would  not 
suffice  to  read  all  the  books  which  it  comprises,  2  nor  even  those 
written  upon  Algeria  alone.  ^  The  excellent  work  of  MM.  Cario 
and  R6gismanset:  VExotisme.  La  Litteratiire  coloniale^  gives 
a  brief  but  adequate  outline  of  the  subject  from  Herodotus  to 
our  own  time.  Like  most  students  of  colonial  literature  in 
France,  these  authors  date  the  modern  colonial  novel  from 
Bernardin  de  Saint-Pierre,  whom  they  treat  at  considerable 
length.  Another  valuable  book  is:  La  Litterature  nord- 
africaine,  ^  by  the  poet  Arthur  Pellegrin,  editor  of  the  periodical 
Tunisie  illustree.  M.  Pierre  Martino's  thesis  for  the  doctorate, 
V Orient  dans  la  Litterature  f ran gaise  an  XV lie  et  au  XVI lie 
siecle  is  a  scholarly  work,  and  contains  much  of  interest  for 
the  student  of  the  history  of  colonial  literature. « 

Louis  Bertrand  refuses  to  apply  to  any  of  his  own  works  the 
term  of  "colonial  novel,"  which,  he  says,  describes  "les  tares 
du  civilise  en  pays  colonial,"  and  which  contrasts  the  European 
and  the  native  in  a  childish  manner.  He  also  repudiates  the 
"roman  exotique"  in  an  equally  emphatic  manner,  on  the 
ground  that  the  exotic  novel  consists  in  the  expression  of  aston- 
ishment and  admiration  in  the  presence  of  the  new  and  the 

*  Louis  Bertrand,  Flaubert  et  I'Afrique,  Revue  de  Paris,  7th  year,  April  1, 1900. 
'  Louis    Cario    and     Charles    Regismanset,    L'Exotisme.     La    Litterature 

coloniale,  p.  5. 

'  Robert  Randau,  Le  mouvement  littSraire  dans  I'Afrique  du  Nord.  Belles- 
Lettres,  November,  1920. 

*  Paris,  Mercure  de  France  (Publishers),  1911. 
^  Tunis,  Bibliotheque  nord-africaine,  1920. 

«  Paris,  Hachette  et  Cie.,  1906. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     11 

Strange,  and  encourages  the  Occidental  to  adapt  himself  to  the 
manners  and  customs  of  inferior  civilizations. '  In  a  letter  to 
the  writer  of  this  paper,  M.  Bertrand  says  that  he  has  passed 
his  whole  life  in  combating  exotism,  which  he  considers  as  a 
form  of  "badauderie"  and  of  ignorance.  In  the  class  of  the 
colonial  novel  as  defined  by  Louis  Bertrand,  or  of  the  exotic 
novel,  consisting  principally  of  descriptions  of  Oriental  land- 
scapes and  life,  often  mingled  with  romantic  adventures,  may 
be  ranged  nearly  all  of  the  fiction  whose  scenes  are  laid  in  the 
colonial  possessions  of  France.  Among  the  better  known  of 
the  authors  of  such  tales  might  be  mentioned:  Daudet,  Mau- 
passant, Pierre  Loti,  Paul  Adam,  Claude  Farrere,  Pierre  Mille, 
Charles  Geniaux,  Marius  and  Ary  Leblond,  Jean  and  Jerome 
Tharaud,  Paul  and  Victor  Margueritte,  Emile  Nolly  and  Pierre 
Benoit. 

The  special  field  of  Louis  Bertrand,  the  Latin  colonist  in 
Africa,  has  been  treated  by  only  one  other  Frenchman  (of 
France),  M.  Hugues  LeRoux.  The  literary  field  of  this  noted 
traveller,  essayist,  lecturer  and  novelist  is  as  extensive  and  varied 
as  his  wanderings.  His  African  novels,  preceding  those  of 
M,  Bertrand,  and  dealing  in  some  cases  with  the  same  subject, 
might  be  supposed  to  have  influenced  the  latter.  M.  Bertrand, 
however,  informs  the  writer  of  this  paper  that  he  is  not  familiar 
with  the  works  of  Hugues  LeRoux.  As  for  Rudyard  Kipling, 
who  undoubtedly  inspired  several  French  writers,  notably 
Pierre  Mille — there  is  no  connection  between  his  talent  and  that 
of  Louis  Bertrand.  The  latter,  in  deploring  foreign  influences 
upon  French  letters,  spoke  of  *Mes  grossieres  histoires  d'un  simple 
animalier  comme  Rudyard  Kipling."  2 

If  the  author  of  Le  Cycle  africain  states  an  opinion  in  1903, 
the  reader  may  be  fairly  certain  that  it  applies  to  his  whole 
work,  for  seldom  have  the  doctrines  of  a  writer  altered  or  evolved 
less  in  the  course  of  a  long  career  devoted  to  literature.     There 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  Nietzsche  et  la  Mediter ranee,  La  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 
Vol.  25,  January  1,  1915. 

'  Louis  Bertrand,  La  Renaissance  classique  (1903),  p.  42. 


iZ  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

has  been  growth,  of  course,  but  no  radical  changes  and  very  few 
modifications  of  theory.  For  this  reason,  in  the  chapter  upon 
the  doctrines  of  Louis  Bertrand,  no  attempt  is  made  to  group 
them  by  periods. 

While  this  is  not  to  the  same  extent  true  of  his  fiction,  Httle 
attention  is  devoted  to  the  evolution  from  the  novel  of  manners 
of  the  African  cycle  to  the  historical  novel  of  the  second  period, 
nor  are  the  results  of  this  evolution  studied,  for  this  paper 
proposes  to  deal  only  with  M.  Bertrand 's  African  novels,  and 
their  relation  to  his  principal  doctrines. 

In  connection  with  the  chapter  which  briefly  analyzes  the 
novels  of  Louis  Bertrand,  it  should  be  stated  that  the  rather 
summary  description  of  his  characters  is  due  to  limitations  of 
space.  In  the  books  themselves  the  personality  of  the  various 
types  is  gradually  unfolded  to  the  reader  with  consummate  art. 

In  the  pages  which  present  critical  estimates  of  the  work  of 
Louis  Bertrand,  no  effort  is  made  to  group  critical  opinions 
either  chronologically  or  according  to  the  books  under  review. 
The  unity  of  doctrine  which  underlies  the  Cycle  africain,  as  well 
as  the  peculiar  construction  of  the  novels  themselves,  has  in- 
clined commentators  to  consider  the  characteristics  of  the  group 
as  a  whole,  the  qualities  of  its  author,  and  the  types  he  has 
created,  rather  than  to  examine  the  individual  book,  or  to 
attempt  an  analysis  of  its  plot  or  action. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     13 

I 

The  French  in  North  Africa 

The  history  of  the  French  empire  in  North  Africa,  in  spite 
of  periods  of  stumbHng  and  hesitation,  shows  a  steady  progress 
which  can  hardly  be  attributed  to  anything  but  a  deep-seated, 
though  perhaps  at  times,  sub-conscious  national  desire  for 
colonial  expansion.  Since  1520  France  had  clung  to  a  few 
unprofitable  trading  stations  in  Algeria,  paying  therefor  an 
annual  rent  to  the  Turks,  the  nominal  masters  of  the  country. 
These  station-s  had  been  sacked  several  times,  and  it  was  due  to 
this  fact,  and  to  a  dispute  over  the  rent,  that  the  occasion  for 
intervention  arose.  In  1827,  the  French  consul,  M.  Duval,  was 
struck,  in  the  course  of  a  heated  argument,  by  Hussein,  the 
Dey  of  Algiers,  and  this  insult,  coupled  with  the  irritation 
produced  by  many  years  of  Moorish  and  Turkish  piracy  in  the 
Mediterranean,  and  possibly  with  a  desire  to  create  a  diversion 
of  public  opinion  from  growing  dissatisfaction  in  France,  decided 
Charles  X  to  act.  On  June  14,  1830,  a  French  army  of  37,000 
men  landed  at  Sidi  Ferruch,  and  within  a  few  hours  occupied 
Algiers,  almost  without  a  struggle. »  Lamartine  seems  to  have 
offered  a  fair  estimate  of  the  situation  when  he  wrote:  "Le 
littoral  de  TAfrique  n'est  ni  turc  ni  arabe.  Ce  sont  des  colonies 
de  brigands  superposees  a  la  terre  et  ne  s'y  enracinant  pas.  .  .  . 
C'est  un  vaisseau  sans  pavilion  sur  lequel  tout  le  monde  peut 
tirer."  ^ 

That  the  Turks  had  little  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the 
natives  is  shown  by  the  enthusiasm  with  which  the  Arabs  attacked 
and  plundered  the  retreating  Turkish  troops,  as  described  by  a 
French  eye-witness. ' 

The  occupation  did  not  pass  without  protest  by  England, 

^  Alfred  Rambaud,  La  France  coloniale,  pp.  49,  50. 

2  Alphonse  de  Lamartine,  Voyage  en  Orient  (1832-1833),  Vol.  II,  p.  475. 

^  Le  Moniteur  Universel,  August  5,  1830. 


14  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

but  Polignac,  the  prime  minister,  assured  her  that  France 
intended  only  to  suppress  piracy.  When  England  asked  definite 
assurance  that  there  would  be  no  acquisition  of  territory,  Polig- 
nac, in  a  firm  note,  answered  that  the  word  of  the  King  as  to 
French  intentions  was  a  sufficient  guarantee,  i 

Louis  Philippe  considered  for  a  time  abandoning  Algeria,  and 
there  was  strong  opposition  in  the  Chambre  des  D6put6s  to  its 
retention.  Gradually,  however,  the  coast  ports  were  occupied, 
special  troops  were  recruited,  and  the  French  prepared  to  stay 
and  to  extend  their  conquest.  2  One  of  the  first  important 
measures  was  the  creation  of  the  "Bureaux  arabes,"  composed 
of  officers  whose  mission  it  was  to  study  the  natives,  their  lan- 
guage, customs,  and  beliefs,  supervise  them,  and  keep  the  high 
command  informed  of  their  movements.  Marshal  Bugeaud 
was  the  first  great  administrator.  He  established  a  government 
of  the  natives,  based  upon  their  religious  organization  (1842-44), 
completed  the  pacification  of  the  tribes,  and  attempted  to  make 
of  Algeria  a  "colonie  de  peuplement".  The  first  French  colon- 
ists, largely  insurgents  of  1830,  were  massacred  by  the  Arabs 
or  killed  by  fever.  In  1848,  the  year  of  the  first  civil  government, 
some  20,000  unemployed  Parisian  workmen  were  settled  on  land 
grants,  and  guaranteed  food  for  a  certain  time,  but  this  attempt 
also  failed,  as  the  workmen  were  unfamiliar  with  agriculture. 
Colonization  was  still  further  discouraged  when,  in  1863,  Napo- 
leon III  wrote  to  the  Governor-General  of  Algeria  (Marshal 
Pelissier)  that  the  government  would  favor  development  of  the 
country  by  great  companies,  and  would  no  longer  encourage 
colonists  by  subsidies  or  grants  of  free  land,  and  that  Algeria 
was  not  a  colony  properly  speaking,  but  an  Arab  kingdom.  3 

The  "senatus-consulte"  of  1865,  still  in  force  to-day,  declares 
a  French  citizen  to  be  any  person  born  on  French  soil  of  a  parent 
himself  born  there,  and  also  any  young  man  born  on  French 
soil  of  foreign  parents  who  does  not  decline  French  citizenship 

'  Victor  Piquet,  La  Colonisation  frangaise  dans  VAfrique  du  Nord,  p.  32. 

^  Rambaud,  opus  cit.,  p.  50. 

*  Moniteur   Universel,  Feb.  7,   1863. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     15 

in  the  year  following  his  majority.  This  law  greatly  increases 
the  native-born  population.  In  1871  a  formidable  revolt  under 
the  leadership  of  an  important  chief  named  Mokrani  was  sup- 
pressed after  five  months  of  hard  fighting,  and  300,000  hectares 
of  land  were  confiscated  from  the  natives,  to  be  distributed  to 
the  colonists.  Shortly  after  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  some 
10,000  citizens  of  Alsace-Lorraine  who  had  elected  French 
citizenship  were  established  in  Algeria,  but  as  only  a  few  had 
agricultural  experience,  the  effort  met  with  little  success.  *  It 
was  not  until  1880  that  colonization  began  to  be  really  success- 
ful. In  that  year  the  phylloxera  was  destroying  vines  in  France, 
and  many  experienced  wine  growers  emigrated  to  Algeria,  where 
in  most  cases  their  efforts  were  richly  rewarded,  and  in  twenty 
years  they  increased  five  fold  the  number  of  hectares  planted 
to  vineyards.  In  these  years  the  natives  lost  two-fifths  of  their 
remaining  lands,  and  were  forced  to  go  "elsewhere".  2 

Since  1884  there  have  been  no  tariff  duties  between  France 
and  Algeria,  except  on  certain  kinds  of  alcoholic  drinks.  By 
the  most  recent  census,  that  of  1911,  the  population  of  Algeria 
was  5,492,000,  of  whom  304,000  were  native  French  or  their 
descendants  (an  increase  of  25,000  since  1906),  188,000  natural- 
ized French  citizens  (an  increase  of  18,000  since  1906)  of  whom 
some  138,000  were  of  Spanish  origin,  117,000  Spaniards,  33,150 
Italians,  64,000  Jews,  and  6,217  Maltese.  ^  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  while  the  mortality  of  the  French  is  higher  than  in 
France,  the  birth  rate  is  sufficiently  high  to  produce  a  slight 
but  steady  increase  exclusive  of  immigration.  * 

The  conquest  of  Algeria  seems  never  to  have  aroused  serious 
opposition  either  at  home  or  abroad.  Bismarck  even  favored 
the  colonial  expansion  of  France  as  a  means  of  turning  the 
thoughts  of  the  French  away  from  their  eastern  frontier.  The 
next  colonial  adventure  of  France  was  not,  however,  destined 

^  Rambaud,  opus  cit.,  p.  110. 

2  Piquet,  opus  cit.,  p.  205. 

3  Ibid. 

*  Augustin  Bernard,  L'Afrique  du  Nord,  p.  21. 


16  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

to  be  so  fortunate.  In  it  she  came  face  to  face  with  England* 
jealous,  as  ever,  of  the  security  of  the  trade  routes  to  her  great 
colonies.  When,  nevertheless,  De  Lesseps  began  the  Suez 
Canal  in  1859,  the  Second  Empire  seemed  strong  enough  to 
disregard  such  considerations.  The  Canal  was  finished  in  1869, 
but  in  1875  England  secured  her  first  hold  upon  it  by  buying 
the  shares  of  the  Khedive.  Increasing  disorder  in  Egypt  made 
intervention  inevitable,  but  when  it  came,  in  1882,  France  was 
still  on  an  equal  footing  w  th  England.  On  July  4th  of  that  year 
a  French  and  an  English  fleet  arrived  before  Alexandria;  eleven 
days  later  an  English  force  landed  but  the  French  force  refrained. 
On  this  day  France,  in  the  eyes  of  Europe,  renounced  her  claims 
to  Egypt.  1 

In  the  legislative  session  in  the  Chambre  des  Deputes  of 
July  18th  and  19th,  a  request  for  additional  credits  by  the 
Ministere  de  la  Marine  was  made  the  subject  of  a  spirited  debate. 
Gambetta,  supported  by  the  Center  and  the  moderate  elements 
of  the  Left  and  the  Right,  advocated  making  every  effort  to 
retain  the  alliance  with  England  as  the  best  means  of  defending 
French  interests  in  the  Mediterranean.  The  English,  he  asserted, 
esteem  an  ally  who  can  make  his  own  interests  respected.  The 
extreme  Right  refused  to  vote  the  credits  requested,  asserting 
that  this  would  show  approval  of  a  government  which  had  not 
sustained  French  interests  with  sufficient  firmness.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  find  that  on  this  occasion  M.  Clemenceau  demanded 
liberty  for  the  oppressed  Egyptians  in  the  name  of  the  great 
principles  of  the  French  Revolution.  He  rejoiced  in  the  presence 
of  the  English  in  Egypt,  for  France  was  thus  prevented  from 
ruling  the  country  by  military  force.  The  famous  ironist 
feigned  not  to  have  grasped  the  point  of  the  debate,  when  he 
obserbed  that  England  did  not  need  the  help  of  the  French  to 
guarantee  the  safety  of  the  canal.  ^ 

France  made  one  more  effort  to  raise  the  question  politically, 
when  the  Marchand  mission  arrived  at  Fashoda  in  Upper  Egypt 

*  Andre  Tardieu,  L'Afrique  du  Nord,  p.  197. 
«  Le  Journal  Officiel,  July  19  and  20. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     17 

in  August  of  1898.  Confronted  by  the  victorious  army  of 
Kitchener,  fresh  from  its  complete  triumph  over  the  forces  of 
the  Mahdi,  the  intrepid  Marchand  was  forced  to  withdraw. 
The  reaction  from  this  humihation  was  so  strong  in  France  that 
even  such  a  firm  nationalist  as  Jules  Lemattre  went  so  far  as 
to  advocate  an  alliance  with  Germany  against  England. ' 

France  derived  at  least  one  source  of  satisfaction  and  material 
advantage  from  her  unfortunate  experience  in  Egypt,  for  in 
the  future  she  received  the  unvarying  support  of  England  for 
French  claims  in  other  parts  of  North  Africa.  With  her  un- 
easiness regarding  the  fate  of  her  trade  route  to  India  allayed, 
England  seemed  eager  to  promote  the  plans  of  France  elsewhere. 
Was  England  confident  that  once  having  a  claim  upon  the 
Canal,  its  acquisition  was  merely  a  matter  of  time  and  patience? 
The  student  of  English  history  inclines  to  this  view  when  he 
finds  Salisbury,  British  prime  minister,  declaring  to  the  Congress 
of  Berlin  in  1878  that  his  government  would  not  oppose  French 
influence  in  the  Regency  (Tunisia),  and  would  not  set  up  any 
claims  contrary  to  it.  ^ 

Thereafter,  the  progress  of  France  in  Tunisia  w^as  relatively 
rapid  and  easy.  For  many  years  the  finances  of  the  Beys  had 
been  in  an  extremely  involved  condition;  efforts  made  by  French, 
British  and  Italian  individuals  and  commissions  to  bring  them 
into  some  sort  of  order  had  met  with  little  real  success.  The 
authority  of  the  Turks,  and  even  of  the  Beys,  was  nominal, 
and  the  interior  of  the  country  was  in  fact  in  a  state  of  anarchy. 
Finally  in  1881  the  incursions  of  the  savage  nomadic  tribesmen 
across  the  Algerian  frontier  created  an  intolerable  situation.  A 
few  French  soldiers  were  killed,  and  the  natives,  subjects  of 
France,  were  plundered  and  harried.  Jules  Ferry,  head  of  the 
government,  hesitated  no  longer,  but  obtained  from  the  Farle- 
ment  credits  and  permission  to  send  against  the  turbulent  tribes- 
men of  Tunisia  an  expedition  which  should  assure  the  future 
security   of   Algeria.  ^    A    powerful    French    force   crossed    the 

1  Tardieu,  opus  cit.,  pp.  200,  201. 

2  Piquet,  opus  cit.,  pp.  311-314. 
3  Ibid. 


18  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

border,  dispersed  the  nomads,  and  marched  on  Tunis,  which 
was  occupied  without  a  struggle.  The  Bey  did  not  dare  resist, 
and  in  the  general  revolt  of  the  tribes  which  followed  in  this 
same  year,  he  even  aided  the  French. 

These  operations,  though  successful  and  not  very  costly, 
aroused  such  opposition  at  home  that  the  government  which 
had  undertaken  them  was  overthrown.  France  was  not  yet 
wholly  converted  to  a  policy  of  colonial  expansion.  The  fol- 
lowing year,  we  find  a  conservative  deputy,  with  the  manifest 
approval  of  the  Right  and  of  the  more  radical  elements  of  the 
Left,  voicing  the  often  repeated  objection  that  France,  not 
having  an  overflow  of  population,  would  be  maintaining  security 
in  Tunisia  for  the  benefit  of  Spaniards,  Greeks,  Italians  and 
Maltese,  and  that  colonial  conquest  weakens  the  strength  of 
France  by  scattering  her  forces.  ^ 

By  the  treaty  of  1883,  the  Bey  agreed  to  execute  all  of  the 
reforms  requested  by  France,  who  bound  herself  to  guarantee 
the  Tunisian  debt.  The  treaty  of  1896  declares  Tunisia  to  be  a 
protectorate  of  France.  ^  The  Bey  is  the  nominal  executive, 
but  the  Resident  General,  the  representative  of  the  powers  of 
the  Republic,  has  a  veto  over  all  of  his  decisions.  The  Bey  is 
"advised"  by  a  cabinet  composed  (except  for  the  minister  of 
justice)  of  the  French  executives  who  are  chiefs  of  the  various 
departments  of  the  government.  ^  In  local  affairs  the  French 
have  utilized  the  existing  froms  of  native  government,  which 
have  been  respected  and  even  consolidated.  Except  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  garrison,  Tunisia  costs  France  little  or  nothing, 
and  excellent  results  have  been  obtained.  While  no  efforts 
have  been  made  to  form  in  Tunisia  a  "colonic  de  peuplement", 
the  natural  resources  of  the  country  have  been  developed  by 
individual  initiative  and  private  capital,  largely  invested  by 
retired  army  officers,  public  officials,  and  other  small  capitalists, 

1  Journal  Officiel,  July  18,  1882. 
^  Piquet,  opus  cit.,  p.  324. 
•  Rambaud,  opus  cit.,  p.  171, 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     19 

who  reside  on  their  estates  for  only  a  part  of  the  year. '  Of  a 
total  population  of  1,928,000,  by  the  census  of  1911:  148,000 
were  Europeans,  of  whom  46,000  were  French  (a  gain  of  11,000 
since  1906),  88,000  Italians,  and  some  10,000  Maltese.  == 

With  the  eastern  flank  of  Algeria  thus  assured,  France  was 
free  to  turn  her  eyes  to  the  western  frontier,  so  long  a  source  of 
trouble,  for  the  same  reasons  as  in  the  case  of  the  Tunisian 
border.  Each  year  some  30,000  Moroccans  came  into  the 
Algerian  province  of  Oran  to  help  with  the  harvest,  and  these 
natives,  worked  upon  by  Moslem  agitators,  spread  seeds  of 
revolt  among  the  subjects  of  France.  In  1903  the  Sultan  of 
Morocco  obtained  from  French  bankers  a  loan  of  62,000,000 
francs,  guaranteed  by  the  customs  duties.  In  1904  both  Spain 
and  England  recognized  the  right  of  France,  as  the  bordering 
power,  to  a  preponderant  position  in  the  direction  of  the  reforms 
which  were  agreed  upon  as  necessary  for  Morocco,  and  in  the 
maintenance  of  order.  The  sovereignty  of  the  Sultan  was  to 
be  respected,  and  there  were  to  be  no  tariff  or  other  economic 
inequalities.  Thus  the  policy  of  "peaceful  penetration"  pro- 
ceeded smoothly  for  France  till  March,  1905,  when  a  yacht 
bearing  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  cast  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Tangier. 
The  imperial  visitor  announced  that  he  had  come  to  confer  with 
the  Sultan,  alone,  upon  the  best  method  of  assuring  German 
commercial  rights  in  Morocco,  and  that  he  considered  the  Sultan 
as  an  absolutely  independent  sovereign.  France  felt  the  threat 
implied  by  this  statement,  and  excitement  was  tense,  though 
suppressed,  for  France  did  not  feel  ready  for  war.  Paul  Des- 
chanel  probably  voiced  the  mood  of  the  nation  when,  in  a 
speech  before  the  Chambre  des  Deputes,  a  speech  which  was  a 
veritable  "cri  du  coeur",  he  recalls  that  France  gave  up  claims 
upon  Egypt  (to  England),  Tangier  (to  Spain)  and  Tripoli  (to 
Italy)  in  return  for  a  country  which  France  does  not  possess, 
which  she  must  pacify,  and  for  which,  most  serious  of  all,  she  is 
brought  face  to  face  with  "the  present  difficulty".  ^ 

T  Augustin  Bernard,  opus  cit.,  p.  21. 

»  Ibid. 

'  Journal  Officiel,  April  20,  1905. 


20  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

Encouraged  by  the  words  of  the  Kaiser,  several  Moroccan 
notables  suggested  a  conference  of  the  powers  to  consider  the 
reforms  proposed  by  France.  Delcass4,  the  vigorous  foreign 
minister,  was  obliged  to  resign  (June  6,  1905).  It  was  the 
darkest  hour  France  had  known  since  1871.  However,  the 
conference  held  at  Algesiras  early  in  1906  resulted  in  a  vindication 
of  the  claims  of  France.  ^  Andre  Tardieu  probably  expresses  the 
judgment  of  a  large  number  of  thoughtful  Frenchmen  when  he 
draws  the  moral  that  the  real  lesson  of  Algesiras  is  that  a  political 
policy  is  of  value  only  as  it  has  military  force  to  support  it,  and 
that  a  people's  safety  is  measured  by  its  capacity  for  making  war. 
This  capacity  is  a  necessary  condition  of  all  colonial  policy,  and 
even  of  the  existence  and  independence  of  a  nation.  ^ 

Though  shaken  to  the  depths  by  the  crisis  of  1905,  France 
gathered  herself  resolutely  together,  and  prepared  to  face  her 
problems  with  a  new  hope  and  a  new  courage.  General  Lyautey 
was  sent  to  Morocco,  where  his  energetic  military  action,  followed 
by  a  firm  and  wise  political  policy,  quickly  pacified  the  country. 
At  home  France  was  rapidly  strengthening  her  military  forces 
and  toughening  her  moral  fiber,  softened,  according  to  some 
writers,  by  two  generations  of  physical  comfort  and  humanitarian 
theories.  In  1911  French  troops,  after  quelling  a  formidable 
rising  of  the  tribes,  occupied  Fez.  When  Germany,  desirous 
of  re-opening  the  Moroccan  question,  seized  upon  this  occupation 
as  an  excuse  for  sending  a  gunboat  to  Agadir,  France  was  ready, 
and  met  her  with  unmistakable  firmness.  In  the  words  of  an 
ardent  French  nationalist,  "The  whole  French  nation  waited 
impatiently  for  a  declaration  of  war."'  The  Germans  had  at 
this  time  no  field  gun  comparable  to  the  "soixante-quinze",  and 
their  airplanes  were  also  far  inferior  to  those  of  the  French. 
France  was  supported  in  her  occupation  of  Fez  by  England  and 
vSpain. 

I  Piquet,  opus  cit.,  p.  458. 

'  Andre  Tardieu,  La  Conference  d'Alghiras.  Histoire  de  la  Crise  Maro- 
caine  (1909),  pp.  472-474. 

'  Abb^  Ernest  Dimnet,  France  Herself  Again  (1914),  p.  204. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OP  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     21 

Under  these  conditions,  the  German  Empire  wisely  decided 
not  to  press  the  question,  and  after  two  weeks  of  anxiety,  the 
tension  passed.  The  Accord  after  Agadir,  which  re-confirmed 
the  position  of  France  in  Morocco,  was  signed  on  November 
4,  1911.  The  feeHng  of  quiet  pride  which  animated  France  at 
this  happy  ending  of  a  delicate  situation  may  well  be  gauged 
by  a  speech  which  Joseph  Caillaux,  then  ''President  du  Con- 
seil",  made  to  his  constituents  two  days  later.  Caillaux  said, 
in  part,  ".  .  .  .  il  6tait  difficile  d'esperer  pour  la  France  une 
issue  plus  honorable  et  plus  avantageuse  d'une  question  que  la 
force  des  choses  obligeait  k  liquider  et  a  regler.  .  .  .  I'immense 
majority  s'applaudit  aujourd'hui  d'une  solution  qu'elle  a  attendue 
avec  le  calme  et  la  dignite  qui  |bnt  le  fait  des  peuples  forts."  i 
Caillaux  has  never  been  considered  as  an  imperialist;  hence  the 
trend  of  his  speech,  made  to  a  fairly  radical  electorate  (La  Sarthe), 
is  an  excellent  measure  of  the  intensity  of  the  nationalistic 
feeling  animating  France  at  this  time. 

Thus  freed  from  outside  interference,  France  moved  rapidly 
forward  to  the  consolidation  of  her  hold  upon  Morocco.  By 
the  Treaty  of  Fez,  signed  in  March,  1912,  the  French  protecto- 
rate over  Morocco  is  recognized,  and  they  may,  in  agreement 
with  the  Sultan,  execute  such  reforms  as  they  deem  wise,  and 
may  occupy  with  their  troops  whatever  points  they  wish,  after 
having  notified  the  Sultan.  2  In  the  same  year  General  Lyautey 
was  named  "Commissaire  Resident  General"  with  very  wide 
powers. 

From  this  point  forward  the  history  of  Morocco  is  so  closely 
identified  with  that  of  the  new  Resident  General  that  it  may  be 
interesting  to  consider  for  a  moment  this  remarkable  soldier 
and  administrator.  Twelve  years  earlier  General  Lyautey  had 
written  that  a  colonial  expedition  should  be  led  by  the  chief 
who  was  destined  to  administer  the  country  after  its  conquest, 
for  such  an  officer  would  have  constantly  in  mind  the  future  of 

»  Journal  Officiel,  November  6,  1911. 
2  Piquet,  opus  cit.,  pp.  463,  464,  465. 


22  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

the  country  as  a  colony.  ^  For  General  Lyautey  and  the  officers 
trained  in  his  school,  military  action  is  only  a  foundation  upon 
which  to  build  the  edifice  of  peace.  A  combat  is  considered  as 
being  the  result  of  former  mistakes.  It  should  be  prevented 
by  a  constant  and  mobile  show  of  power,  which  will  exercise  a 
preventive  effect  by  impressing  upon  the  native  the  futility  of 
resistance.  On  the  constructive  side,  the  native  should  be  won 
over  by  an  appeal  to  his  sense  of  self-interest — his  labor  and 
food-products  should  be  bought  at  fair  prices.  He  should  thus 
be  shown  that  he  has  everything  to  gain  by  supporting  the 
French  and  everything  to  lose  by  opposing  them.  2  The  Sultan 
was  to  be  kept  too  closely  in  hand  to  make  any  trouble,  while 
preserving  a  sufficiently  independent  appearance  to  have  enough 
prestige  with  his  native  subjects  to  render  him  a  useful  instrument 
of  government  for  the  French.  ^ 

The  soundness  of  these  principles  was  clearly  demonstrated  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  World  War.  With  the  country  scarcely 
pacified,  and  every  available  soldier  needed  in  France,  many 
competent  authorities  advised  that  the  French  attempt  to  hold 
only  the  coast  of  Morocco.  General  Lyautey  refused  to  abandon 
a  foot  of  soil,  for  he  knew  that  the  Mussulman  attacks  at  the 
first  sign  of  weakness,  and  that  a  withdrawal  would  precipitate 
a  general  insurrection.  Though  his  effectives  were  greatly 
diminished,  Lyautey  succeeded  in  extending  French  holdings, 
and  even  in  recruiting  soldiers  and  workmen  for  service  in  France 
by  voluntary  enlistment.  He  pushed  public  works  vigorously, 
saying  that  one  "chantier"  for  natives  was  worth  a  battalion  of 
French  troops.  *  It  is  to  such  wise  policies  as  these  that  France 
is  indebted  for  the  acquisition  and  preservation  of  her  colonies. 
Surely  she  did  well  to  honor  this  great  and  humane  soldier  by 
election  to  the  French  Academy.  ^ 

^  Lt.-Col.  Lyautey,  Le  Role  colonial  de  VArmee,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 
Vol.  157,  January  15,  1900. 

2  Andre  Tardieu,  opus  cit.,  p.  587. 

3  Jacques  Ladreit  de  Lacharriere,  L'Afrigue  du  Nord,  p.  82. 

*  Augustin  Bernard,  L' Effort  de  VAjrique  du  Nord,  pp.  11  and  25. 
'  General  Lyautey  was  received  into  the  French  Academy  on  October  31, 
1912,  L'Afrigue  Frangaise  for  November,  1912. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     23 

The  necessity  for  France  that  her  representatives  in  North 
Africa  combine  the  highest  virtues  of  the  soldier  and  the  adminis- 
trator may  be  measured  by  a  glance  at  the  problem  offered  by 
the  Mohammedan  natives.  Of  these  there  are  some  five  to 
eight  millions  in  Morocco  alone,  ^  as  opposed  to  45,000  Europeans, 
of  whom  about  31,000  are  French  and  12,000  Spanish. »  In 
French  North  Africa,  therefore,  there  are  between  eleven  and 
fifteen  million  natives,  and  less  than  one  million  Europeans. 
Probably  some  two-thirds  of  these  natives  are  Berbers,  a  seden- 
tary and  agricultural  people,  while  the  remainder  are  Arabs, 
largely  nomads  and  shepherds,  and  Moors,  city  dwellers  and 
small  merchants.  These  peoples,  though  they  do  not  appear 
to  have  any  very  definite  ideas  of  patriotism  as  understood  by 
Occidentals,  are  united  by  the  strong  bond  of  the  Mohammedan 
faith,  a  faith  which  more  than  maintains  its  position.  The 
"French  peace",  imposed  upon  these  formerly  warlike  races, 
coupled  with  their  surprising  fecundity,  has  already  resulted 
in  a  great  increase  of  population,  which  may  now  be  counted  on 
to  double  every  forty  years,  according  to  one  estimate.  ^ 

The  danger  of  a  successful  armed  revolt  is  decreasing,  owing 
to  the  superiority  which  such  modern  weapons  as  the  airplane, 
the  machine  gun  and  poison  gas  give  to  the  civilized  man  over  the 
barbarian.  The  economic  problem,  however,  will  necessarily 
become  more  acute  in  proportion  as  France  further  attempts 
to  make  of  North  Africa  a  "colonic  de  peuplement".  An  ideal 
"colonic  de  peuplement"  has  been  defined  as  one  which  is  roomy, 
sparsely  inhabited  and  of  temperate  climate.  It  can  be  success- 
fully colonized  only  by  a  nation  having  a  large  overflow  popula- 
tion. ■*  Now  in  Algeria,  a  policy  of  removing  the  natives  from 
tillable  lands,  even  by  purchase,  can  go  no  further;  in  Tunisia 
the  aridity  is  a  formidable  obstacle,  while  in  Morocco  the  country 

^  Ladreit  de  Lacharriere,  opus  cit.,  p.  72. 

2  Statesman's  Year  Book,  1921. 

'  Piquet,  opus  cit.,  p.  530. 

*  Louis  Vignon,  UExpansion  de  la  France,  p.  178. 


24  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

is  already  densely  populated  in  those  regions  which  are  suitable 
for  agriculture.  ^ 

Since  the  natives  of  North  Africa  are  too  numerous  to  be 
exterminated,  and  since  their  Moslem  faith  is  an  insurmountable 
barrier  to  their  assimilation,  it  is  evident  that  the  problem  of 
the  disposition  to  be  made  of  them  is  one  worthy  to  occupy  the 
attention  of  the  best  statesmanship  of  France. 

The  history  of  the  relations  of  France  with  Algeria,  Tunisia 
and  Morocco  is  an  illustration  of  what  seems  to  be  a  general 
law;  namely  that  civilized  nations  have  always  been  obliged  by 
the  nature  of  their  occupation  to  modify  conditions  under  which 
they  have  entered  countries  where  a  dangerous  anarchy  prevails. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  last  century  it  became  necessary  for  a 
European  nation  to  take  over  Algeria  in  order  to  end  the  intoler- 
able nuisance  of  Mediterranean  piracy  and  plunder  of  which  the 
country  was  the  headquarters.  Then  too,  "liberty"  means  to 
the  Moslem  freedom  to  enslave  the  black  and  to  rob  and  massacre 
the  Christian  and  the  Jew.  Christendom  would  not  have 
tolerated  such  a  state  of  bloody  anarchy  much  longer,  and  owes 
a  debt  of  gratitude  to  France  for  accepting  the  role  of  its  pro- 
tector in  North  Africa.  Once  established  in  Algeria,  France 
could  permit  no  other  power  upon  her  frontiers,  for  such  a  power 
might  incite  Mohammedan  fanaticism  against  her.  And  no 
European  people,  it  may  fairly  be  said,  has  ever  ruled  the  Moslem 
with  less  bloodshed  than  have  the  French. 

*  Piquet   opus  cit.,  p.  529. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     25 

II 

The  Renascence  of  National  Energy.     1885-1914. 

The  generation  which  had  come  to  maturity  in  the  relatively 
care-free  and  materialistic  atmosphere  of  the  Second  Empire, 
did  not  feel  at  once  the  whole  moral  significance  of  the  Defeat 
of  1870.  It  was  not  until  about  1880  that  the  psychological 
frame  of  mind  which  has  been  called  the  ideology  of  the  Defeat 
was  generally  observed.  The  first  manifestation  of  this  depres- 
sion was  a  sort  of  exasperated  idealism,  which  exalted  pure 
intelligence  as  opposed  to  physical  force;  it  was  a  form  of  revenge 
taken  by  humiliated  pride.  Men  proclaimed  that  the  refined 
and  idealistic  races  were  by  these  very  qualities  condemned  to 
destruction.  Pessimism,  pride  of  the  intelligence,  scorn  of  the 
active  life,  acceptance  of  a  near  and  irremediable  fall,  inability 
to  make  a  choice;  such  were  the  ideas  which  combined  to  form 
the  attitude  of  mind  described  as  dilettantism.  Because  he 
tries  to  understand  and  enjoy  everything,  without  attaching 
himself  to  any  one  thing,  the  dilettante  considers  himself  superior 
to  the  believer.  He  is  profoundly  impregnated  with  a  sense  of 
the  relativity  of  all  truth,  and  this  attitude  leads  directly  to 
impotence,  and  through  it  to  pessimism  and  even  to  despair.  The 
habitual  mode  of  self  expression  of  the  dilettante  is  irony,  which 
is  the  proud  attempt  of  a  conquered  intellectualism  to  show 
that  it  scorns  the  things  for  whose  possession  it  is  incapable  of 
making  an  effort.  This  irony  the  Frenchmen  of  the  Defeat 
directed  against  themselves,  each  other  and  their  past.  One 
of  the  first  to  protest  against  the  self-deprecation  of  his  com- 
patriots, Fustel  de  Coulanges,  compares  the  tendency  to  a  mania 
for  suicide.  ^ 

The  mortal  fatigue,  the  gloomy  perception  of  the  vanity  of 

^  Agathon,  Les  Jeunes  Gens  d'Aujourd'hui.  The  present  chapter  is  largely 
based  upon  this  book,  but  as  citations  are  rather  from  the  general  impression 
than  from  specific  passages,  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  refer  to  such  passages. 


26  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

all  effort  so  prevalent  in  the  eighties,  is,  in  the  opinion  of  Paul 
Bourget,  a  return  to  the  "mal  du  si^cle"  of  the  romanticists,  i 
In  the  introduction  the  Le  Disciple  (1889),  Bourget  summons 
the  new  generation  to  return  to  the  Church,  and  urges  the  youth 
of  France  to  exalt  and  to  cultivate  the  two  great  virtues,  the 
two  great  energies — Love  and  Will.  Louis  Bertrand  believes 
that  the  young  men  of  this  generation  thought  that  they  had 
lost  the  taste  for  action,  and  even  for  life,  partly  through  the 
depression  engendered  by  the  Defeat,  and  partly  through  the 
influence  of  the  generation  of  the  Second  Empire,  which  opposed 
ideas  which  it  felt  to  be  hostile  to  its  materialistic  conception 
of  life.  The  young  men  of  the  eighties,  continues  M.  Bertrand, 
while  not  ready  to  proclaim  the  defeat  of  science,  were  bowed 
under  the  iron  law  of  universal  determinism.  2 

But  help  was  to  come,  and  from  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  for 
Maurice  Barres,  starting  as  a  disciple  of  the  Prince  of  the  Dilet- 
tanti, Ernest  Renan,  soon  came  under  the  influence  of  Taine, 
"the  great  professor  of  energy", '  and  began  to  elaborate  a 
doctrine  which  was  to  give  the  youth  of  France  a  new  hope  and 
a  new  courage.  The  earlier  theme  of  Barres,  "le  culte  du  moi", 
preaching  that  the  individual  must  feel  as  intensely  as  possible 
in  order  to  create  in  himself  a  maximum  of  strength,  is  really 
a  glorification  of  energy.  This  theory  of  individual  energy 
gradually  evolves  into  that  of  social  energy.  Such  energy  grows 
and  is  nourished  in  proportion  as  it  has  roots  in  its  native  soil; 
it  is  vigorous  and  fecund  only  in  so  far  as  it  remains  under  the 
influences  which  formed  and  matured  it  throughout  the  cen- 
turies. *  From  these  general  theories  Barres  deduces  the  central 
idea  of  his  work:  the  restoration  of  provincial  life,  and  more 
particularly    that   of    his    native    Lorraine.     In    Lorraine,    the 

^  Paul  Bourget,  Essais  de  Psychologic  contemporaine,  Vol.  I,  Preface  de 
1885,  p.  XXII. 

'  Louis  Bertrand,  L'CEuvre  de  M.  Paul  Bourget,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 
Vol.  60,  December  15,  1920. 

'  C.  Lecigne,  Du  Diletlantisme  d  V Action,  p.  13. 

*  Maurice  Barres,  Leurs  Figures,  p.  225. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     27 

Bastion  of  the  East,  what  creates  a  barrier  to  the  German 
invader  is  an  ancient  sentimental  background  formed  of  a 
common  fund  of  legends,  traditions  and  habits,  acquired  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  same  locality  through  a  long  line  of  ancestors. 
The  true  principle  of  strength  for  the  individual  consists  in  the 
enlightening  of  his  conscience  by  submission  to  the  counsels 
of  the  soil  and  of  the  forefathers.  Such  is  the  famous  Barr^sian 
doctrine  of  "la  terre  et  les  morts"  which,  developed  in  the  three 
volumes  composing  Le  Roman  de  VEnergie  nationale,  ^  had  an 
enormous  influence  upon  the  young  men  of  the  nineties  and  the 
early  years  of  the  new  century.  These  books  embody  a  whole 
cross  section  of  the  moral  lives  of  the  youths  of  France,  and 
will  be  consulted  in  the  future  for  an  exact  description  of  the 
decade  which  they  depict.  ^  In  his  evolution  Barres  is  an 
epitome  of  the  progress  of  the  renascence  of  his  country. » 

Barres  is  a  master  to  the  present  generation  because  he  demon- 
strated to  it  that  one  must  believe  strongly  in  something.  He 
tried  to  supply  an  acceptable  formula  with  his  cult  of  the  hero 
of  tradition  (i.  e.  Napoleon  in  Les  Der acmes)  and  by  his  religion 
of  "la  terre  et  les  morts".  Speaking  to  an  age  of  individualists 
in  its  own  language,  Barres  was  able  to  convince  it  of  the  necessity 
of  a  discipline,  in  order  to  strike  a  reasonable  balance  between  a 
life  of  action  and  one  of  intellectual  attainment.  His  work  was 
wholesome  in  that  it  restored  "le  sens  des  venerations", 
but,  bearing  as  it  did  the  stamp  of  a  generation  convinced  that 
all  truth  is  relative,  it  could  not  satisfy  the  new  generation. 
His  work  was  a  necessary  stage,  but  appeared  to  many  not 
entirely  adequate  to  a  rapidly  changing  time. «  The  young  men 
of  the  new  century  start  at  a  point  which  Barres  reached  only 
after  long  meditation,  and  much  of  his  work  interests  them 
simply  as  a  record  of  a  transition  period. 

The  new  generation,  in  impatient  reaction  against  the  preced- 

1  Les  Deracines,  1897;  L'Appel  au  Soldat,  1900;  Leurs  Figures,  1903. 

2  James  Huneker,  Egoists,  p.  233. 

3  Dimnet,  opus  cit.,  p.  246. 
*  Agathon,  opus  cit.,  p.  76. 


28  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

ing  one,  craves  unqualified  assertion  and  dogmatic  affirmation. 
This  need  was  to  be  satisfied  by  Charles  Maurras,  whose  works, 
under  the  general  title  of  "empirisme  organisateur",  have  as 
their  main  purpose  the  crystallization  of  custom  into  a  definite 
code.  *  This  code,  formulated  and  preached  daily  for  years  in 
V Action  fran^aise,^  and  collected  in  numerous  volumes,  is 
definite  enough  to  please  the  most  exacting. 

The  first  article  of  the  creed  of  Maurras  is  the  need  of  the 
awakening  and  the  quickening  of  nationalism  under  the  stimulus 
of  patriotism.     This  awakening,   beginning  with   the  students 
in  their  libraries,  museums  and  class-rooms,  at  first  a  subject 
of  a  vague  poetic  enthusiasm,  passed  by  gradual  stages  into 
political  life,  under  the  influence  of  literature.     Its  purpose  was 
to  restore  to   France  her  contested  or  neglected  advantages, 
which    were:    the    historical    and    territorial    characteristics    of 
France,  her  races,  provinces,  archives,  legends,  her  treasure  of 
ideas,  poetry  and  arts.  ^     To  the  patriots  of  this  school,  romanti- 
cism seemed  a  great  error,  and  the  Revolution  a  profound  bit  of 
stupidity,  against  which  the  loftiest  ideals  of  the  race  protest.  < 
Political   and   religious  anarchism   in   the   Latin   peoples   is  an 
ethnological   paradox,   for  they  are  heirs  to   the   traditions  of 
order  and  authority  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  to  that  incom- 
parable government  of  minds  and  hearts,  that  lofty  discipline 
of  the  most  delicate  sentiments,  that  visible  administration  of 
"mysticite",    which    is    the    Catholic    Church.     For    twenty 
centuries  the  Church  has  been  the  repository  of  civilized  order 
and  has  preserved  the  greater  part  of  the  seeds  of  human  prog- 
ress.    Such,  in  brief,  are  the  doctrines  of  the  "exterior  Cathol- 
icism" preached  by  Maurras,  who  is  not  a  "croyant".' 

*  Paul  Bouget,  Le  Tribun,  chronique  de  1911,  Preface,  p.  II. 

-  Charles  Maurras  is  one  of  the  editors  of  U Action  franqaise.  The  other 
is  the  vitriolic  Leon  Daudet. 

'  Charles  Maurras,  Quand  les  Frangais  ne  s'aimaient  pas.  Chronique  d'une 
renaissance,  1890-1905,  p.  XV. 

*  Maurras,  Ibid.,  p.  126. 

^  Maurras,  La  Politique  religieuse,  p.  IX. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     29 

The  establishment  of  a  discipline  is  also  the  underlying  idea 
in  the  restoration  of  the  Monarchy,  as  advocated  by  M.  Maurras. 
He  admits  that  a  state  which  is  satisfied  with  liberty  may  find  a 
certain  well-being  in  it,  but  if  the  state  has  any  aims  beyond 
mere  self-preservation,  and  wishes  to  expand,  it  must  forge  a 
discipline  for  itself. »  Colonial  and  industrial  development,  by 
creating  jealousies,  inevitably  cause  wars,  and  Maurras  would 
have  France  strong  enough  to  wage  them  successfully. 

The  elements  which  have,  as  social  groups,  refused  to  accept 
the  doctrines  propounded  by  Maurras  are  the  Jews,  the  Free 
Masons,  the  Protestants,  the  French  citizens  of  foreign  birth 
("meteques")  and  the  Socialists,  from  which  elements,  in  his 
opinion,  the  republican  form  of  government  draws  its  principal 
support.  Compromise  is  impossible,  believes  M.  Maurras; 
attempts  at  community  of  action  between  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants on  a  basis  of  Christianity  have  always  resulted  in  the 
duping  of  the  former.  Liberalism,  largely  of  Judeo-Protestant 
origin,  is  useless  for  Catholics,  and  is  rapidly  being  forgotten.' 
No  alliance,  concludes  M.  Maurras,  can  be  arranged  between  the 
Catholic  Church  and  such  a  dissident  element  as  Protestantism.  ^ 

It  was  largely  to  defend  France  from  such  factors  of  disinte- 
gration that  La  Ligue  de  V Action  f ran Qaise  was  founded.  Con- 
ceived in  1898,  *  it  did  not  become  a  really  active  force  until  the 
early  months  of  1905,  when  contemporary  events  brought  it 
rapidly  to  the  fore.  On  March  21,  1905,  military  service  had 
been  reduced  from  three  to  two  years  by  the  efforts  of  Jaures  and 
the  radical  groups;  ten  days  later  the  Kaiser  made  his  famous 
speech  at  Tangier,  and  shortly  after,  Delcasse  resigned  under 
pressure,  it  is  thought,  from  Berlin.  The  Tangier  affair  had 
aroused   little  immediate  reaction   upon   French   pride,   thinks 

'  Charles  Maurras,  Quand  les  Franqais  ne  s'aimaient  pas,  p.  209. 

2  Emile  Faguet,  describing  himself  as  a  "vieux  liberal,"  thinks  that  the 
failure  of  liberalism  is  the  characteristic  fact  of  the  nineteenth  centur>'. 
Problemes  politiques  du  temps  present  (1907),  p.  II. 

'  Maurras,  La  Politique  religieuse,  p.  XXV. 

« Maurras,  Ibid,  p.  XVII. 


30  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

Maurras,  for  La  Ligue  had  barely  come  into  existence,  but  when 
the  Agadir  crisis  confronted  France,  even  patriotic  republicans 
used  La  Ligue  as  a  "point  d'appui"  for  resistance. 

U Action  frangaise  was  unquestionably  influential  in  recon- 
ciling the  conservative  forces  of  France  to  a  common  discipline 
in  the  name  of  nationalism.  To  the  young  idealists  of  the 
universities  it  preached  the  necessity  of  throwing  off  the  anarchy 
taught  by  the  past  century,  of  considering  positive  necessities, 
and  of  dominating  the  spirit  of  negation  and  insurrection.  To 
the  soldier  and  the  priest,  it  suggested  the  threat  to  their  interests 
made  by  the  growing  strength  of  the  radical  and  other  non- 
Catholic  elements.  The  premises  of  Maurras,  expressing  the 
needs  of  a  powerful  class,  were  received  with  enthusiasm.  His 
conclusions,  showing  the  necessity  of  unity  in  the  discipline  of 
the  Church,  were  also  widely  accepted.  The  pragmatism  of 
Maurras,  however,  inaugurated  for  the  conversion  of  a  genera- 
tion of  sceptics,  no  longer  satisfied  a  youth  avid  for  the  inner 
life  of  Catholicism.  ^  In  general,  also,  the  young  men  of  the 
lycees  and  the  universities  reject  the  conclusions  of  Maurras 
concerning  the  Monarchy,  and  are  loyal  to  the  Republic.  2 

Selecting  from  each  of  its  "professors  of  energy"  the  part  of 
his  teachings  it  most  needed,  the  younger  generation  gradually 
came  to  crystallize  its  will  into  certain  definite  aims.  These 
tendencies,  taking  form  confusedly  during  the  fourteen  years 
when  France  was  collecting  her  moral  forces  and  preparing  for 
concerted  action,  were  brought  to  light  by  the  moral  crisis  of 
1905,  and  have  affirmed  themselves  steadily  up  to  the  present 
time.  The  central  motive  seems  to  be  a  love  of  action,  as  con- 
trasted with  intellectualism.  In  its  practical  phases,  this  ideal 
has  taken  the  form  of  a  wide-spread  participation  in  athletic 
sports,  a  keen  interest  in  the  army,  an  early  entrance  into  the 

'  Agathon,  opus  cit.,  p.  67.  In  response  to  an  inquiry  by  Agathon,  the 
professors  of  philosophy  of  the  "intellectual"  Iyc6es  of  Condorcet,  Henry  IV, 
and  Louis-le-Grand  testified  (1912-14)  to  the  depth  and  fervency  of  the 
Catholicism  of  most  of  their  students. 

'  Agathon,  opus  ciL,  p.  105. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     31 

more  active  forms  of  business,  travel  for  purposes  of  adventure, 
exploration  and  colonization,  marriages  contracted  at  a  much 
younger  age,  and  a  higher  standard  in  matters  of  sex.  On  the 
moral  side,  the  psychological  trend  is  towards  an  awakened 
patriotism,  a  taste  for  the  heroic,  a  cult  of  classical  tradition 
and  a  return  to  the  Catholic  faith. 

Is  this  change,  one  of  the  most  complete  recorded  in  the  inner 
life  of  the  French,  to  be  enduring,  or  is  it  to  share  the  fate  of  so 
many  reactions?  Henri  Bergson,  an  admiring  spectator  of  the 
renascence,  believes  that  he  is  witnessing  not  a  mere  transforma- 
tion of  ideas,  which  change  easily,  but  a  re-creation  of  the 
national  will.  The  will,  he  asserts,  is  the  real  expression  of  the 
temperament,  and  the  temperament  is  the  hardest  of  human 
characteristics  to  modify. » 

*  Agathon,  opus  cit.f  p.  286. 


32  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 


III 

Flaubert's  Salammho  as  a  Source  of  Inspiration  for  the 
African  Novels  of  Louis  Bertrand 

M.  Louis  Bertrand  has  pointed  out  the  high  esteem  in  which 
Flaubert  is  held  by  the  younger  generation.  ^  The  author  of 
Salammho  was  one  of  the  first  to  preach  that  the  remedy  for 
the  Defeat  was  not  a  vain  intellectualism,  but  a  knowledge  of 
realities,  ^  for  though  of  a  contemplative  temperament  himself, 
Flaubert  worshipped  action  and  heroism.  Incarnating  in  himself 
the  intellectual  efforts  of  several  generations,  he  is  rich  in  ideas 
and  images,  and  combines  to  an  unusual  degree  an  understanding 
of  bygone  scenes  and  epochs  with  a  marvellous  presentiment 
of  the  future.  It  is  by  this  quality  of  the  classicists  that  he 
has,  believes  M.  Bertrand,  been  able  to  satisfy  one  phase  of  the 
aspirations  of  an  epoch  of  renascence. 

Flaubert  was  irresistibly  attracted  by  the  romantic  and  exotic 
charm  of  the  Orient,  its  exuberant  flora  and  fauna,  by  its  swarm- 
ing humanity,  its  grotesque  and  violent  contrasts,  and  above  all, 
by  its  riotous  colors  and  flaming  light.  Something  barbaric 
and  primitive  in  the  man,  a  secret  affinity  for  the  seething  pas- 
sions of  uncivilized  mankind,  lured  his  imagination.  The  age- 
long yearning  of  the  barbarian  of  the  North  for  countries  of  joy 
and  light  seems  to  have  possessed  this  giant,  whose  appearance 
and  violent  gestures  and  speech  led  Anatole  France  to  compare 
him  to  a  Norse  sea  rover.  ^  The  fact  that  romantic  dreams  of 
strange  and  far  countries,  even  more  than  utilitarian  or  patriotic 
reasoning,  have  inspired  soldiers,  explorers  and  colonists  to  brave 
hardship  and  danger,  would  explain  the  taste  of  the  generation 
of  the  renascence  for  the  writings  of  Flaubert.     Superior  men  of 

*  Louis  Bertrand,  Flaubert  ct  VAJrique,  Revue  de  Paris,  7th  year,  2d  vol., 
April  1.  1900. 

2  Louis  Bertrand,  Guslave  Flaubert,  p.  237. 

'  Anatole  France,  La  Vie  litteraire.  Vol.  II,  p.  18. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     33 

action  are  usually  urged  to  achievement,  not  so  much  by  material 
need  or  advantages,  as  by  obscure  atavistic  instincts.  The 
artist  who  can  evoke  the  charm  of  the  strange  and  the  myster- 
ious stirs  this  instinct  into  action,  while  the  patriotic  doctrinaire 
supplies  the  reasons  by  which  restraining  prudence  is  overcome. 
The  latter  role  Flaubert  leaves  to  others,  for  the  advocating  of  a 
doctrine  would  be  foreign  to  his  professed  theory  of  the  imper- 
sonality of  art. 

In  accordance  with  this  theory,  the  artist  must  limit  himself 
to  representing,  and  must  not  attempt  to  offer  explanations  or 
to  draw  conclusions,  for  both  causes  and  ends  are  hidden  from 
us.  The  business  of  the  writer  is  simply  to  contemplate,  to 
understand  and  "chanter  la  vie".  Art  should,  then,  be  imper- 
sonal, for  art  is  man  added  to  nature,  but  by  this  is  meant  the 
literary  man,  not  the  citizen,  with  his  prejudices  of  caste  and 
environment.  Art  must  be  intellectual  and  sentiment  must  be 
subordinated  to  the  intelligence.  Sensation  and  feeling  have 
reality  only  as  they  are  reduced  to  an  idea,  or  as  they  have  been 
connected  with  a  system  of  previously  verified  ideas.  The 
esthetic  code  of  Flaubert  is  therefore  essentially  classical 
and  Cartesian.  The  intelligence  must  control  the  emotions, 
and  may  even  create  them,  for  it  is  capable  of  creating  reality. 
Flaubert  is  convinced,  like  Taine  and  Renan,  that  the  universe 
attempts  to  prove  the  scholar  in  the  right  by  verifying  his  laws 
and  justifying  his  hypotheses.  He  reconciles  these  abstract 
laws  with  reality  by  fusing  them  in  a  love  of  beauty,  which  both 
satisfies  the  intelligence  and  leaves  place  for  dreams.  ^ 

The  material  for  an  art  thus  conceived  must  be  taken  from  a 
subject  adapted  to  the  temperament  of  the  artist.  Thus  the 
true  subject  of  Flaubert  was  antiquity,  not  only  in  its  romantic 
and  decorative  phases,  but  in  its  essential  and  permanent  aspects. 
Because  Flaubert  conceives  the  ancient  world  as  a  magnificent 
manifestation  of  life,  he  is  led  to  study  it  in  its  most  intense, 
turbulent  and  confused  epochs.  The  swarming,  cosmopolitan 
crowds  of  Rome,  Carthage  and  the  Orient,  with  their  conflicts  of 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  Gustave  Flaubert,  pp.  19-22. 


34  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

races,  religions  and  ideas,  their  obscure  instincts  of  cruelty, 
superstition,  vice  and  mysticism,  had  a  supreme  attraction  for 
him. 

Flaubert  continues  the  great  French  tradition,  which  consists 
in  observing  facts  and  objects  in  their  most  general  sense.  Thus 
for  him  Africa  is  a  country  of  limitless  fecundity,  of  prodigious 
creative  energy,  of  fierce  sensuality  and  cruelty.  The  land  is 
personified  in  the  Phoenician  goddess  Tanit,  a  symbol  of  the 
hidden  and  evil  powers  of  nature  which  constantly  conspire  to 
check  the  harmonious  action  of  the  reason  through  the  violence 
of  the  senses.  The  duality  of  Tanit  and  Moloch  is  only  the 
expression  of  the  double  nature  of  the  climate,  which  is  shown 
by  surprising  contrasts  in  the  soul  and  genius  of  Africa.  Tanit 
stands  for  the  amorous  and  corrupting  languor  of  the  coasts, 
while  Moloch,  the  devourer,  symbolizes  the  aridity  of  the  sands; 
he  is  the  hot  breath  of  the  desert  which  inspires  not  only 
unbridled  sensuality,  but  thirst  for  conquest,  pillage  and  murder. 
Feminine  softness,  savage  brutality — the  whole  spirit  of  Africa 
is  expressed  in  this  antithesis. 

These  eternal  aspects  of  the  country  Flaubert  has  revealed  in 
Salammbo,  a  work  of  the  imagination,  yet  one  which  combine  an 
understanding  of  the  past  with  a  comprehension  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  life.  He  saw  that  in  Africa  the  race  question  was 
all-important,  and  perceived  a  Carthage  composed  of  ethnical 
elements  of  many  origins,  never  completely  fused,  and  whose 
conflicting  characteristics  and  interests  were  the  cause  of  most 
of  the  revolts  and  wars.  He  does  not  paint  these  checkered 
crowds  in  the  manner  of  Zola,  as  an  unchained  element,  but  has 
depicted  individual  traits  corresponding  to  the  diversity  of 
races.  Flaubert  had  a  remarkable  intuition  of  the  main  ethnical 
currents  of  the  ancient  Occidental  world.  In  all  times  the  men 
of  the  North  and  of  the  Mediterranean  countries  have  hungered 
for  the  license  of  Africa.  Like  the  mercenaries  of  Hamilcar, 
the  modern  invaders  of  Africa,  the  men  of  Normandy,  Provence, 
Catalonia,  Valencia  and  Calabria  are  drawn  to  its  shores  by  all 
sorts  of  lures,  but  especially  by  its  vices.  » 

1  Louis  Bertrand,  Ibid,  p.  76. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     35 

In  Salammho,  Flaubert  has  created  characters  that  are  the 
living  expression  of  a  land,  a  climate,  and  a  moment  of  history. » 
They  are  veritable  Africans,  yet  they  bear  the  distinctive  marks 
of  the  countries  from  which  they  originally  came.  According  to 
the  classical  procedure,  Flaubert  has  drawn  general  types,  whose 
vitality  is  such,  however,  that  they  are  still  recognizable  today 
in  North  Africa.  The  Greek  Spendius,  for  example,  might  well 
be  the  Neapolitan  or  Spanish  adventurer,  a  bully  and  a  boaster, 
ready  to  make  a  fortune  by  any  questionable  means.  2  Matho 
might  well  be  the  good-hearted,  faithful  spahi,  born  to  serve, 
proud  of  his  medals,  and  capable  of  great  heroism.  Many  of 
the  characters  of  the  novel  are  easily  recognizable  in  the  streets 
of  present-day  Algiers  and  Tunis;  the  same  types  of  adventurers, 
the  same  hybrid  and  colorful  crowds,  yet  a  study  of  the  literature 
of  Rome  and  Punic  Africa  shows  that  Flaubert  has  made  a 
psychologically  accurate  reconstruction  of  antiquity,  3  and  that 
the  principal  traits  of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants  have  not 
changed  appreciably  in  the  course  of  the  centuries.  Salammbo 
depicts  a  strange  and  motley  society  and  a  land  where  the  Orient 
and  the  Occident  mingle  without  fusing — the  meeting-place  of 
two  opposing  civilizations. 

Thus  has  Flaubert  created  an  historical  novel  of  the  best 
type;  one  which  connects  the  present  and  the  past  in  a  vast 
synthesis.  It  is  a  new  conception  of  reality,  to  take  from 
phenomena  their  fixed  and  rigid  appearance  by  projecting  them 
into  the  past  and  the  future.  This  conception  means  the 
reconciling  of  the  local  color  of  the  romanticists  with  the  eternally- 
the-same  human  heart  of  the  classicists,  of  the  transitory  with 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  Le  Jar  din  de  la  Mort,  p.  292. 

2  Louis  Bertrand,  Gustave  Flaubert,  p.  97. 

2  Confirmation  of  this  opinion  of  Louis  Bertrand  is  found  in  Sources  and 
Structure  of  Flaubert's  Salammbo,  (1914,  The  Elliott  Monographs),  by  P.  B.  Fay 
and  A.  Coleman.  Mr.  Fay  concludes  that  Flaubert  follows  faithfully  the 
account  of  the  mercenary  war  given  by  Polybius,  p.  34.  Mr.  Coleman  finds 
that  while  Flaubert  owes  little  to  the  Bible,  he  must  have  ransacked  antiquity 
to  supply  himself  with  the  numberless  details  which  his  genius  has  colored 
and  fused,  p.  55. 


36  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

the  permanent.  ^  Flaubert  had  a  keen  sense  of  the  continuity  of 
history,  considering  it  as  a  perpetual  renewal  after  stated  periods. 
He  knew  that  there  is  a  correlation  of  action  between  the  present 
and  the  past,  and  that  the  struggles  of  the  barbarians  around 
Carthage  were  the  symbol  of  the  same  force  which  drives  their 
descendants  into  Africa  and  brings  them  into  conflicts  with 
Islam. 

It  was  through  his  trips  to  Africa  that  Flaubert  came  to  a  full 
understanding  of  the  "sens  de  la  vie,"  and  it  was  upon  Africa, 
considered  as  a  source  of  life  and  beauty,  that  he  wished  to  write 
his  final  and  greatest  book.  As  early  as  1860  Flaubert  expressed 
the  opinion  that  a  great  success  awaited  the  author  who  could 
write  a  "grandissme"  novel  on  Algeria.  Two  years  later  he 
confided  to  the  Goncourt  brothers  that  the  dream  of  his  life  was 
to  write  a  great  novel  on  the  modern  Orient,  and  told  of  the 
pleasure  it  would  give  him  to  depict  the  curious  contrast  of  an 
Oriental  becoming  civilized  and  a  European  reverting  to  a  state 
of  barbarism,  while  about  the  latter,  his  hero,  revolved  the  worst 
elements  of  the  Greek,  Italian  and  Jewish  races.  ^  Flaubert,  on 
first  landing  in  Africa,  was  surprised  to  find  that  he  was  less 
interested  in  the  picturesque  and  the  exotic  sides  of  life  than  in 
its  psychological  and  human  phases.  Had  he  carried  out  his 
project,  we  would  not,  in  M.  Bertrand's  opinion,  have  found  in 
his  book  the  conventional  Orient  brought  into  fashion  by  Byron 
and  his  imitators:  white-bearded  sheiks  and  barred  windows 
overlooking  the  blue  sea,  but  psychological  studies  of  scientific 
exactness.  Flaubert  would  have  drawn  the  startling  grotesque- 
ness  of  the  motley  throngs,  the  eager  immigrants,  the  astonishing 
moral  corruption,  and  above  all,  the  happy  carelessness  of  this 
society  so  generously  treated  by  nature  that  it  drifts  aimlessly 
through  life,  forgetting  its  ideals  and  retaining,  of  the  countries 
where  its  members  were  born,  only  vague  national  prejudices. 

Flaubert's  death  prevented  the  realization  of  this  gorgeous 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  Une  Evolution  nouvelle  du  Roman  historique,  Revue  de 
Paris,  28th  year.  May  15,  1921. 

^Journal  des  Goncourt,  Vol.  II,  p.  23. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     37 

dream,  and  since  Salammbo,  M.  Bertrand  thinks,  nothing  has 
been  brought  from  Africa  but  a  superficial  exotism,  and  no  one 
has  seen  that  there  was  anything  to  be  obtained  in  Algeria  but 
sunsets  and  mirages.  ^  Yet  the  two  great  African  novels  of 
Flaubert,  Salammbo  and  La  Tentation  de  Saint  Antoine,  together 
with  the  one  which  he  had  planned,  form  a  "large  conception 
d'ensemble"  whose  meaning  has  scarcely  been  understood,  and 
"dont  la  fecondite  est  incalculable."  2  For  the  barbarian 
mercenaries  ^  are  flocking  to  North  Africa  in  greater  numbers 
than  ever  from  all  of  the  Mediterranean  countries,  with  the  same 
appetites  for  lucre  and  dominion  as  when  they  sacked  Carthage 
centuries  before.  Thus  the  subject  of  Salammhd  is  once  more 
offered  to  the  novelist  who  would  try  his  skill  upon  it.  *  How 
M.  Louis  Bertrand  continues  the  task  where  Flaubert  left  off, 
and  how  this  task  broadens  and  acquires  a  new  significance 
under  the  influence  of  the  renascence  of  French  nationalistic 
feeling  in  the  twentieth  century,  is  the  subject  of  the  study  made 
in  the  following  pages. 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  Flaubert  et  VAfrique,  Revue  de  Paris,  7th  year,  2d  Vol,. 
April  1,  1900. 

2  The  same  article.  Much  of  this  article,  like  others  upon  Flaubert  pub- 
lished by  M.  Bertrand  in  La  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  and  La  Revue  de  Paris, 
has  been  re-printed  in  Gtistave  Flaubert.  In  the  book  the  significant  paragraph 
here  cited  ends:     "dont  la  fecondite  litteraire  est  loin  d'etre  epuisee"  (p.  94). 

3  The  word  "barbarian",  so  frequently  met  in  the  works  of  Louis  Bertrand, 
seems  to  have  a  variety  of  meanings  depending  upon  the  context  and  the 
nature  of  the  subject  under  discussion.  In  passages  which  refer  to  Flaubert, 
M.  Bertrand  uses  the  word  to  designate  the  workman  from  Latin  countr  es, 
in  order  to  make  clear  the  parallel  between  the  mercenaries  of  SdLammbd  and 
the  present-day  invaders  of  North  Africa.  In  discussions  of  Oriental  peoples, 
the  term  means  the  Moslem  native.  In  connection  with  European  affairs, 
"barbarian"  seems  to  mean  any  actual  or  possible  enemy  of  France,  such 
as  the  Anglo-Saxon,  the  German,  or  the  Russian  of  the  Soviets.  See:  Le 
Jardin  dela  Mort,  p.  308  (cited  on  p.  55  of  this  paper),  and  La  Revue  Catholique 
des  Idees  et  des  Fails,  for  December  16,  1921.     (Cited  on  p.  48  of  this  paper.) 

*  Flaubert  et  VAfrique. 


38  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

IV 

The  Life  and  Ideas  of  Louis  Bertrand 

By  the  exercise  of  a  curious  combination  of  aversions  and 
affinities,  the  early  environment  of  Louis  Bertrand  was  destined 
to  influence,  to  an  unusual  degree,  the  choice  and  trend  of  his 
Hfe  work.  Born  on  March  20,  1866,  in  the  little  village  of 
Spincourt,  near  Metz,  his  earliest  recollections  are  of  the  German 
invader.  Spincourt  was  not  annexed,  but  the  near  presence  of 
the  enemy  was  felt  as  a  constant  menace,  and  to  it  M.  Bertrand 
owes  his  keen  "sens  de  ce  qui  n'est  pas  moi";  a  sort  of  sub- 
conscious hostility  to  whatever  is  not  French.  The  country  was 
constantly  wet,  with  stagnant  pools  of  water  and  sticky  mud 
everywhere,  and  this  dampness,  coupled  with  the  penetrating 
cold,  caused  in  him  an  oppressive  sadness  and  a  craving  for  light 
and  heat.  The  monotonously  level  plains  of  the  Woevre  dis- 
trict of  his  native  Lorraine  gave  Louis  Bertrand  a  longing  for  the 
vast  horizons  of  the  desert.  The  ever  present  menace  of  the 
enemy  caused  in  the  people  of  Lorraine  a  uniformity  of  thought 
and  habit  and  a  rigorous  discipline  which  threatened  to  stifle 
the  delicate  parts  of  the  soul,  leaving  only  the  combative  virtues. 
Whatever  feeling  for  beauty  Louis  Bertrand  acquired  in  his 
youth  was  due  to  the  Church,  whose  ceremonies  provided  him 
with  a  refuge  and  a  barrier  against  the  rough  life  of  the  country. » 

As  a  student  at  the  Lycee  Henri  IV,  which  he  entered  in  1883, 
Louis  Bertrand  is  described  as  being  a  tall,  slender  3^outh, 
studious  and  reserved,  with  quite  a  fund  of  dry  and  quiet  humor. 
He  was  soon  at  the  head  of  his  class,  and  from  the  very  first  was 
devoted  heart  and  soul  to  the  art  of  writing.  His  cult  for 
Flaubert  is  described  by  a  comrade  as  less  a  similarity  of  talent 

'  Louis  Bertrand,  U eteryiel  champ  de  hataille,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  Vol. 
28,  August  15  and  September  1,  1915.  All  of  the  biographical  details  on  this 
page  are  from  these  two  articles. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     39 

than  an  affinity  of  taste  and  character.  >  After  completing 
brilliantly  his  studies  at  the  Lyc6e  Henri  IV,  and  later  at  the 
Ecole  Normale,  Louis  Bertrand  was  sent  to  Africa  to  teach  in  the 
Lyc^e  at  Algiers.  This  position  he  held  till  1900,  when  he 
resigned  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  the  career  of  letters. 

In  1891,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  Louis  Bertrand  landed  in 
Africa  burdened,  as  he  has  expressed  it,  with  all  the  ideological 
and  sentimental  nonsense  which  he  had  brought  from  Paris,  but 
also,  as  a  biographer  adds,  with  a  splendid  knowledge  of  classical 
antiquity  and  a  broad  cultural  humanism.  ^    The  thoroughness 
and  solidity  of  this  culture  appear  in  the  study  made  by  Louis 
Bertrand  as  his  thesis  for  the  Doctorate;  La  Fin  du  classicisme 
et  le  retour  a  V  antique  dans  la  secondemoitie  du  XV I  lie  siecle 
et  les  premieres  annees  du  XIXe,  en  France.     The  introduction 
was  signed  at  Madrid  in  August,  1896,  a  few  months  after  its 
author  had  passed  his  thirtieth  birthday.     The  book  is  a  study 
of  the  manner  in  which  the  movement  back  to  antiquity,  starting 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  18th  century,  diffused  itself  in  literature 
and  art  up  to  the  very  eve  of  romanticism.     The  movement  is 
shown  to  be  in  conformity  with  classicism,  whose  fundamental 
principle  is  imitation.     The  author  finds  that  the  main  cause  of 
its  spread  in  France  was  the  growing  paganism  of  morals,  or  the 
weakening  of  the  religious  idea.     He  concludes  that  the  move- 
ment failed  largely  because  his  countrymen  of  the  period  were 
too  personal,  too  exclusively  French,  to  be  able  or  to  wish  to  free 
themselves  from  the  classic  tradition  as  established  in  the  17  th 
century.     In  the  course  of  the  studies  upon  which  the  thesis  is 
based,  its  writer  no  doubt  formulated,  or   at  least  meditated, 
many  of  the  theories  which  are  so  fully  developed  in  his  later 
work.     Already  Louis  Bertrand  had  conceived  the  Mediterranean 
as  the  eternal  attraction  for  the  barbarian  of  the  North,  the  need 
for  the  Latin  of  contact  with  the  barbarian,  and  the  historical 
evidence  of  Latin  continuity. 

1  Andre   Bellessort,   Portraits  d'Ecrivains:  Louis   Bertrand,   Revue   Bleue, 
58th  year,  June  19,  1920. 
2  Ibid. 


40  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

Many  of  these  ideas  and  theories  are  first  exposed  at  some 
length  in  La  Renaissance  classique  (1903),  which  was  written  as  a 
preface  to  the  Chants  seculaires  of  Joachim  Gasquet.  Louis 
Bertrand  wrote  this  introduction  to  the  verses  of  his  friend 
because  he  found  formulated  in  them  an  indication  of  the  aspira- 
tions and  ideas  which  were  moulding  the  rising  generation  of  the 
twentieth  century.  The  purpose  of  the  essay  is  to  develop,  to 
complete  and  to  determine  as  definitely  as  possible  these  aspira- 
tions. Louis  Bertrand  summons  the  new  generation  of  French- 
men to  turn  back  to  the  great  masters  of  the  17th  century  for  a 
renewal  of  their  fecundity.  Above  all,  the  study  of  the  history 
of  their  race  in  its  greatest  period  will  teach  this  generation  the 
road  to  a  discipline  and  to  a  grasp  of  the  realities  of  life. 

Almost  as  soon  as  he  landed  in  Africa,  the  young  student, 
who  had  spent  an  unhappy  childhood  shivering  over  a  stove 
and  dreaming  of  countries  of  warmth  and  sunlight,  was  happy  in 
Algeria.  Lie  felt  his  real  fatherland  to  be  the  shores  of  the 
Latin  Sea,  and  instinctively  his  heart  turned  towards  those 
lands  which  had  fascinated  the  man  of  the  North  for  so  many 
centuries.  The  eternal  magic  of  the  Mediterranean  offers  him 
the  same  "fetes  de  lumiere"  in  which  his  great  ancestor,  the 
painter  Claude  le  Lorrain,  reveled.  ^ 

A  number  of  analogies  related  Algeria  to  the  native  Lorraine 
of  Louis  Bertrand,  and  the  young  traveller  felt  that  he  had  only 
left  his  frontier  of  the  East  for  that  of  the  South.  Again  he 
found  himself  in  a  territory  the  destiny  of  which  was  to  be 
constantly  trampled  over  by  the  invader.  Aided  by  his  "sens 
lorrain  de  I'ennemi  et  de  I'^tranger",  Louis  Bertrand  defended 
himself  against  the  overpraised  and  threadbare  charm  of  Arab 
picturesqueness,  and  instinctively  turned  towards  the  men  and 
the  traditions  of  his  race.  He  neglected  all  that  was  not  Latin 
or  French  to  exalt  his  own  people,  and  to  find  again,  on  this 
soil  invaded  by  the  barbarian  and  the  nomad,  the  titles  of  the 
Latin  to  the  possession  of  the  land. 

This  conception  did  not  immediately  come  to  M.  Bertrand, 

*  Louis  Bertrand,  La  Cr^c^  du  soldi  et  des  pay  sages,  p.  19. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     41 

for  at  first  he  saw  Algeria  as  does  every  one  else;  influenced 
by  official  reports  and  the  descriptions  of  novelists  in  search  of 
local  color.  Then,  gradually,  as  a  result  of  living  in  the  country, 
these  errors  of  vision  began  to  be  corrected.  Direct  personal 
impressions  came  to  take  the  place  of  literary  reminiscences  and 
ready-made  ideas.  What  Louis  Bertrand  almost  at  once  per- 
ceived in  Africa,  as  he  tells  us  in  the  introduction  to  his  first 
novel,  Le  Sang  des  races,  was  the  silent  labor  of  the  men  who  were 
clearing  the  land  and  putting  it  under  cultivation,  draining  the 
marshes,  planting  vines,  and  building  farms  and  cities.  He 
saw  a  whole  race  living  frugally,  a  people  of  rough  manners,  of 
colorful  costumes  and  language,  as  stubborn  in  their  exhausting 
labor  as  though  they  were  performing  it  for  fame  and  honor 
alone.  It  was  a  strangely  cosmopolitan  people  of  mercenaries, 
colonists  and  merchants  which  he  perceived  when  seeking  the 
living  Algeria,  that  of  the  future.  Contemplating  this  variegated 
mass  of  Italian,  Spanish  and  Provencal  immigrants  in  blue 
smocks,  cord  slippers,  and  berets,  drifting  southward  from  the 
coast,  M.  Bertrand  was  led  to  follow  them,  and  thus  began  to 
understand  the  infinite  possibilities  of  the  French  conquest. 
He  was  lured  by  the  charm  of  adventure,  the  delights  of  the  open 
highway,  and  of  the  limitless  spaces.  The  carter,  travelling 
without  constraint  or  master  for  days  and  nights  through  the 
sands  and  surrounded  by  the  mirages  of  the  Sahara,  bringing 
food  to  farms,  villages  and  outposts  at  the  confines  of  the  desert, 
seemed  to  him  to  be  a  sort  of  hero,  enamored  of  liberty,  glory 
and  joy.  Thirsting  for  the  charm  and  the  adventure  of  the 
unknown,  the  scholar  left  his  books  and  followed  the  carter 
across  the  sands. 

At  first  the  man  of  letters  was  shocked  by  these  rough  and 
violent  men,  but  admiration  came  with  understanding.  He 
learned  that  under  a  simple  and  even  barbaric  exterior,  the 
primitive  man  often  conceals  a  delicate  and  extremely  com- 
plicated soul.  Little  by  little,  in  the  supposed  barbarian,  Louis 
Bertrand  discovered  the  eternal  man  of  the  Mediterranean, 
with  his  irresistible  taste  for  wanderings  by  sea  and  road,  for  the 
showy  and  beautiful  side  of  life,  and  for  the  harmonious  labor 


42  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

which  does  not  debase  souls.  The  novelist  learned  that  the 
children  of  the  Latin  Sea  are  characterized  by  respect  for  the 
family,  the  immemorial  rites  of  birth,  marriage  and  death,  and 
by  a  keen  and  jealous  sense  of  individual  independence  and 
worth.  At  this  time,  when  the  author  of  Le  Sang  des  races  had 
before  him  almost  daily  the  epic  poems  of  antiquity,  the  heroes 
of  Homer  and  Pindar  acquired  for  him  a  more  profound  and 
human  meaning  through  his  association  with  the  modern  Latins 
of  the  Mediterranean.  In  the  characters  of  the  classic  epics, 
in  the  souls  of  these  warriors  and  shepherds,  Louis  Bertrand 
found  something  of  the  souls  of  his  own  heroes.  The  songs  of 
the  mariners,  charioteers  and  goatherds  of  antiquity  illuminated 
his  African  carters  with  a  ray  of  poetry.  The  joy  in  life  and 
struggle  which  the  novelist  felt  in  the  new  people  of  Latin  Africa 
revived  for  him  the  atmosphere  of  the  heroic  youth  of  humanity. 
The  verses  of  the  ancient  Greek  poets  affirmed  in  his  mind  the 
lesson  of  virile  energy  and  confidence  in  life  which  he  had 
learned  from  the  rough  teamsters  of  the  desert  highways.  At 
this  time,  when  the  future  seemed  dark,  when  the  enemies  of 
France  said  that  she  was  dying,  this  burning  and  ardent  Africa 
brought  to  Louis  Bertrand  a  distinct  presentiment  of  ultimate 
victory  for  his  fatherland.  Thus  was  born  the  thought  which 
he  has  not  ceased  to  proclaim  ever  since:  that  France,  wearied 
by  centuries  of  civilization,  could  renew  her  youth  by  contact 
with  the  seeming  barbarism  of  the  new  and  vigorous  Latin  race  of 
Africa. » 

The  real  barbarian,  as  M.  Bertrand  uses  the  term.  Is  the 
Moslem  native  of  Africa.  The  colonist,  and  especially  the 
over-civilized  Frenchman,  should  "se  barbarlser"  In  the  sense 
that  he  should  learn  to  understand  the  soul  of  the  barbarian  in 
all  its  violence  and  cunning,  and  be  able  to  compete  with  him 
by  the  strength  of  his  will  and  of  his  muscles.  Thus  will  North 
Africa  become  an  Invaluable  school  of  energy  for  the  Frenchman, 
since  he  will  quickly  learn  there  the  sharp  glance  and  the  power 
of  rapid   decision   of   the   uncultivated   man.     The   immediate 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  Le  Sang  des  races  (edition  of  1920),  pp.  6-9. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     43 

dangers  of  hunger  and  thirst  toughen  the  moral  fiber  just  as  the 
extremes  of  heat  and  cold  harden  the  body,  while  contact  with 
an  ancient,  warlike  and  hostile  race,  disarmed  only  in  appearance, 
develops  the  courage.  Stimulated  by  the  presence  of  the  common 
enemy,  and  by  the  intermingling  of  their  blood,  Latins  from  even 
the  most  somnolent  provinces  of  their  native  countries  show  in 
Africa  a  fecundity,  an  energy,  and  a  capacity  for  action  which 
astonish  those  who  know  them  best.  But  the  rigor  of  the  harsh 
struggle  for  existence  is  not  alone  sufficient  to  explain  the 
sudden  development  of  new  aptitudes  in  the  immigrant.  It  is 
the  moral  atmosphere  of  the  country,  its  climate  and  the  ardor 
of  the  African  sun,  which,  believes  M.  Bertrand,  quicken  in  the 
colonist  the  flowering  of  faculties  which  remain  In  an  embryonic 
state  in  his  European  province.  The  atmosphere,  the  climate 
and  the  sun  are,  for  the  southern  European,  somew^hat  the  same 
as  in  his  native  village,  but  raised  to  a  degree  of  intensity  which 
doubles  in  him  the  power  of  action,  Louis  Bertrand  assures  us. 

In  the  colonies,  the  conditions  of  life  bring  out  the  innate 
capacities  of  man  more  strongly  than  in  the  older  centers  of 
civilization.  The  born  leader  emerges  almost  at  once  from  the 
mass  of  his  fellows  and  Imposes  his  will  upon  them.  Confronted 
with  an  emergency  and  the  necessity  of  rapid  action  in  a  hostile 
and  barren  country,  men  instinctively  turn  towards  the  natural 
chief.  Even  in  the  every-day  life  of  the  more  settled  parts  of  a 
colony,  he  who  can  acquire  wealth  or  power  must  show  more 
vigorous  and  original  qualities  than  the  highly  civilized  man  is 
capable  of  displaying,  because  his  action  is  more  Isolated,  less 
sustained  by  his  environment,  and  less  limited  by  regulations 
and  social  prejudices.  Thus  the  real  attributes  of  an  aristocracy 
assume  a  higher  significance  and  value  In  colonial  countries.  ^ 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  Nietzsche  et  la  MediterranSe,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 
Vol.  25,  January  1,  1915.  Some  of  M.  Bertrand's  ideas  as  here  summarized 
show  a  similarity  with  certain  of  the  conceptions  of  Nietzsche  which  are 
mentioned  in  the  article.  The  question  of  influence  can  scarcely  be  raised, 
however,  as  M.  Bertrand  declares  that  he  did  not  know  Nietzsche's  work 
till  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 


44  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

The  61ite  thus  produced,  believes  M.  Bertrand,  is  one  purely 
of  strength  and  a  profuse  physical  vitality,  and  lacks  the  refine- 
ment as  well  as  the  weaknesses  of  an  older  civilization.  Louis 
Bertrand  describes  the  typical  African  as  characterized  by  ardor 
of  the  imagination,  love  of  whatever  glistens  and  shines,  bad 
taste,  a  frenzied  sensuality,  and  often  by  a  frank  and  undisguised 
obscenity.  But  the  young  peoples,  trusting  in  their  vigor  and 
their  future,  and  conceiving  the  world  by  the  measure  of  their 
appetites,  their  ambitions  and  their  hopes,  may  be  excused  for 
an  often  exaggerated  assertiveness,  which  is  usually  simply  the 
outward  sign  of  a  very  real  force.  All  races  in  their  epochs  of 
expansion  have  aspired  to  grandeur  even  to  the  point  of  magnilo- 
quence ("emphase").  The  overwrought  sensuality  of  the 
African,  caused  by  superabundant  animal  vitality,  may  incite 
him  to  practical  activity  in  order  to  be  able  to  gratify  desires 
for  a  more  voluptuous  and  opulent  life.  Louis  Bertrand  does  not 
hesitate  to  describe  "la  laideur  et  I'ordure"  when  it  displays 
itself  with  an  insolent  cynicism,  or  when  it  symbolizes  for  him  a 
state  of  barbarism  which  is  enjoyed  by  the  greater  part  of 
humanity.  He  even  relishes  such  description  when  it  serves  to 
recall  to  a  sense  of  the  realities  of  life  the  Utopian  and  degenerate 
member  of  an  over-civilized  and  decadent  society.  ^ 

These  salient  characteristics  of  the  Latin  of  Africa  recall  to 
Louis  Bertrand  those  of  the  other  Mediterranean  peoples,  and 
are  explained  by  the  same  influences.  The  novelist  was  early 
impressed  by  the  close  similarity  which  exists  between  North 
Africa  and  the  other  Mediterranean  regions:  the  same  flora  and 
fauna,  the  same  climate  and  the  same  configuration  of  the 
coasts.  North  Africa  is  France  of  the  Midi,  but  to  a  greater 
degree  it  is  Spain  and  southern  Italy.  One  is  not  surprised  then 
that  the  men  of  Languedoc,  Provence,  Spain,  Italy,  Corsica, 
Sicily  and  Malta  have  flocked  to  Africa  and  have  felt  immediately 
at  home  there.  The  manners  and  customs  of  Algiers  are  almost 
the  same  as  those  of  Marseilles,  Valencia  and  Barcelona,  just  as 
the  manners  and  customs  of  Tunis  resemble  those  of  Naples 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  PSpete  el  Balthasar,  Introduction,  p.  4. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     45 

and  Palermo.  When  M.  Bertrand  had  fully  understood  these 
facts  he  felt  that  his  mission  was  determined;  he  decided  to 
write  of  and  celebrate  the  renascence  of  the  Latin  races  in 
French  Africa. 

Louis  Bertrand  believes  himself  to  be  the  first  to  see  modern 
Algeria  as  a  Latin  country.  Those  who  preceded  him,  novelists 
or  travelers,  imbued  for  the  most  part  with  romantic  and  exotic 
prejudices,  perceived  there  only  the  picturesqueness  of  native 
life  and  of  a  dying  civilization.  Such  writers  ignored  the  fas- 
cinating spectacle  of  a  new  people  which  was  groping  its  way 
and  arming  itself  for  life.  Worse  still,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  men  of  letters,  his  predecessors  overlooked  the  rich  psycho- 
logical material  offered  by  this  African  land,  where  are  mingled 
all  types  of  the  Latin  races,  where  differences  of  origin  and 
temperament  become  so  strongly  exaggerated  by  contrast,  and 
under  the  action  of  a  prodigiously  unstable  and  violent  climate. 

This  living  psychology  soon  became  for  M.  Bertrand  the  most 
captivating  subject  for  study  which  he  found  in  Algeria.  Not 
only  did  the  meeting  and  the  slow  fusion  of  the  Mediterranean 
peoples  on  the  soil  of  Africa  seem  to  him  a  fact  of  capital 
importance,  but  he  quickly  accustomed  himself  to  consider  it  as 
an  entirely  natural  phenomenon.  Hearing  about  him  on  all 
sides  most  of  the  dialects  of  the  south  of  France,  of  Italy  and  of 
Spain,  and  observing  that  the  manner  of  living  and  dressing  was 
the  same  as  in  those  countries,  the  novelist  reasoned  that  these 
things  were  not  merely  the  accidental  result  of  a  brutal  and 
ephemeral  conquest.  There  was  between  the  new  people  of 
North  Africa  and  the  land  which  they  inhabited  a  conformity  so 
perfect  that  they  seemed  made  for  each  other.  This  sort  of 
harmony  was  to  be  explained  in  reality  by  more  or  less  distant 
causes,  of  which  the  author  of  Le  Jardin  de  la  Mort  had  a  kind 
of  palpable  vision  when  he  visited  the  ruins  which  Roman  * 
civilization  had  left  in  all  parts  of  French  North  Africa. 

In  the  presence  of  these  monuments,  still  standing  in  spite 
of  the  passage  of  so  many  centuries,  he  understood  with  what  a 
profound  imprint  the  genuis  of  Rome  had  marked  these  provinces 
which  were  among  the  most  active,  the  richest  and  most  cultured 


46  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

of  the  Empire.  This  Roman  Africa  had  long  been  known  to 
archeologists  and  historians.  But  it  was  reserved  for  Louis 
Bertrand  to  present  to  the  public  a  conception  of  it  different 
from  that  of  the  scholar — that  the  Africa  of  the  past  still  lives 
in  the  present.  This  is  the  more  easily  understood  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  country  have 
been  petrified,  or  as  it  were,  embalmed  by  the  Moslem  faith; 
a  religious  ideal  which  has  remained  unchanged  throughout  the 
centuries.  Latin  Africa  is  not  an  accident  of  international 
politics,  but  has  profound  roots  in  the  past,  believes  M.  Ber- 
trand. Yet  the  French  themselves,  he  thinks,  in  occupying 
Algeria,  did  not  seem  aware  that  they  were  simply  recovering  a 
lost  province  of  Latinity,  blinded  as  they  were  by  the  literature 
of  the  lovers  of  the  Orient  and  of  local  color. 

Among  these  latter,  writers  of  great  talent,  like  Fromentin, 
had  contributed  by  the  brilliancy  of  their  paintings  to  this 
initial  error.  In  studying  only  what  was  before  his  eyes,  Fromen- 
tin created  the  prejudice  that  Africa  is  radically  hostile  to  the 
French,  and  that  the  Africans  and  their  conquerors  were  destined 
to  be  forever  enemies.  Flaubert  himself,  by  an  unconscious 
contradiction  due  to  ingrained  romantic  prejudices,  represented 
the  part  of  Africa  which  his  genius  had  made  so  living,  as  some- 
thing forever  dead,  unique  of  its  kind,  which  could  never  be 
reproduced.  Nevertheless  it  was  he  who,  guided  by  a  sure 
instinct,  found  in  the  streets  of  the  nineteenth-century  cities  of 
North  Africa  the  human  types  which  seemed  to  be  contempora- 
ries of  Hamilcar,  thus  furnishing  to  his  disciple  the  key  to  the 
unknown  and  mysterious  world  opening  before  the  young 
student.  Flaubert,  while  showing  the  continuity  of  history, 
was  yet  convinced  that  there  was  no  bond  between  the  Africa 
of  the  present  and  that  of  the  past.  Fromentin,  seeing  only 
contemporary  Africa,  does  not  think  to  inquire  into  its  origins. 

Louis  Bertrand  has  made  the  synthesis  of  the  two  ideas,  and 
has  united  the  present  and  the  past.  The  country  is  full  of 
monuments  and  is  strewn  with  ruins  which  attest  the  common 
origin  of  Latin  and  African  civilizations,  and  show  that  even 
their  religious  faith  had  been  the  same  for  several  centuries 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     47 

The  hundreds  of  dead  cities  of  the  desert  proclaim  by  their 
broken  colonnades  and  their  triumphal  arches  that  Africa  was  a 
Latin  province,  and  that  under  the  hegemony  of  Rome  it  knew  a 
prosperity  never  since  attained.  Not  only  was  the  country  a 
Latin  province,  but  it  has  never  completely  ceased  to  be  one, 
declares  M.  Bertrand,  for  most  of  the  customs  and  material 
things  of  life  are  to-day  as  in  Roman  times.  Thus  the  borj  which 
crowns  the  hills  of  the  Sahel  and  the  Atlas  range  is  in  name  and 
construction  the  Romanic  burgus,  while  the  kouha  which  adorns 
the  roofs  of  the  mosques,  palaces  and  villas  of  North  Africa  was 
called  the  cupa  when  Latin  civilization  was  supreme  in  the 
country.  The  native  gold  work,  the  household  furniture  and 
utensils,  the  symbolic  and  traditional  images,  all  show  the 
survival  of  the  Latin  or  Punic  prototype.  As  for  the  religious 
architecture  of  Moslem  Africa,  M.  Bertrand  affirms  that  it  could 
not  possibly  have  been  introduced  by  the  Arab,  who,  as  a  nomad 
and  a  tent  dweller,  has  never  been  a  builder.  The  mosque  is 
simply  the  basilica  adapted  to  a  different  cult.  From  one  end  of 
the  Mediterranean  to  the  other,  there  is  no  country  where  the 
Helleno-Latin  life  of  antiquity  has  been  preserved  as  intact  and 
as  living  as  in  Africa,  where  the  very  customs  and  dress  of  the 
natives  are  the  same  as  in  the  time  of  the  Empire. 

Christian  ruins  in  Africa  are  more  numerous  than  pagan 
ruins.  Some  two  hundred  and  fifty  churches,  chapels  and 
basilicas  have  been  uncovered.  Why,  asks  M.  Bertrand,  should 
not  pilgrims  flock  there,  since  these  memorials  of  their  faith  are 
unaltered,  while  those  of  Rome  have  in  most  cases  been  almost 
completely  rebuilt?  It  is  an  imperative  duty  of  the  French, 
thinks  the  author  of  Sai7it  Augustm,  carefully  to  preserve  and 
even  to  repair  these  beautiful  and  significant  ruins.  Carthage, 
in  particular,  calls  for  restoration.  Such,  indeed,  was  one  of 
the  dearest  dreams  of  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  that  great  servant  of 
France  and  of  civilization.  He  hoped  to  make  of  it  a  capital 
for  archeology  as  well  as  of  political  power,  and  thus  to  erect 
before  the  eyes  of  the  Moslem  a  monument  to  the  union  of  the 
Empire  and  the  Faith. 

The  re-establishment  of  religious  unity  in  order  to  restore 


48  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

peace  was  the  great  apostolic  task  of  his  predecessor,  Saint 
Augustine.  In  the  book  which  M.  Bertrand  has  devoted  to  the 
biography  of  this  great  churchman  of  the  Empire,  he  has  de- 
picted the  author  of  the  Confessions  as  the  ideal  African,  incar- 
nating the  best  and  loftiest  aspirations  of  an  epoch  and  a  nation. 
He  was  a  universal  genius,  and  for  forty  years  was  the  spokesman 
of  Catholicism.  Saint  Augustine  consummated  the  union  of  the 
Semitic  genius  and  that  of  the  Occident.  He  contributed  more 
than  any  other  one  man  to  save  Mediterranean  civilization  from 
the  barbarian.  Saint  Augustine  was  the  great  African.  The 
French,  who  consider  North  Africa  as  the  extension  of  their  own 
fatherland,  may  think  of  him  with  patriotic  pride,  since  for 
almost  a  century  they  have  been  continuing  in  his  native  country 
the  struggle  which  he  waged  for  Latin  unity.  Throughout  his 
whole  life,  Augustine  was  an  admirable  servant  of  Rome,  for  to 
him  the  Empire  meant  order,  peace,  civilization  and  unity  of 
faith  under  unity  of  political  domination.  Attracted  to  the 
author  of  the  Confessions  by  these  affinities  of  taste  and  ideals, 
Louis  Bertrand  has  treated  his  subject  with  an  enthusiasm 
and  an  insight  which  make  of  the  book  a  biography  of  rare  value.  ^ 

The  restoration  of  the  Latin  and  Christian  ruins  in  this  land  of 
Saint  Augustine  should  interest  the  whole  Catholic  world,  for 
they  show  to  the  Mohammedan  that  he  is  only  an  intruder  in 
this  land  to  which  he  brought  nothing  but  destruction  and  death. 
These  ruins  bear  witness  to  an  ideal  of  civilization  which  has 
never  been  equalled,  and  which  it  is  urgent  today  to  oppose  to 
all  forms  of  barbarism  ("k  toutes  les  barbaries") — to  the  childish 
and  depraved  barbarism  of  the  Slav,  to  Germanic  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  brutality,  and  to  revolutionary  folly.  ^ 

If  the  French  show  themselves  worthy  of  the  great  ideals  of 
their  Latin  ancestors,  and  are  able  to   maintain  themselves  in 

'  Canon  Paul  Halflants,  in  La  Revue  catholique  des  Idees  et  des  Fails  (Brus- 
sels), for  November  4,  1921,  believes  that  Samt  Augustin  vastly  increased  the 
number  of  the  admirers  of  Louis  Bertrand. 

2  Louis  Bertrand,  L'Afrique  latine  et  chrStietme,  an  article  in  La  Revue 
catholique  des  Idees  et  des  Faits,  December  16,  1921. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     49 

Africa,  they  may  make  of  the  country  what  it  was  in  antiquity, 
the  meeting  place  for  the  ideas  of  the  Orient  and  the  Occident. 
The  Latin  spirit  would  doubtless  find  there  a  unique  opportunity 
for  the  renewal  of  its  vitality.  ^ 

The  theories  which  came  to  form  M.  Bertrand's  doctrine  of 
the  continuity  of  Latin  tradition  in  Africa  developed  little  by 
little  as  a  result  of  his  wanderings  through  the  solitudes  and 
ruins  of  Algeria.  Gradually  he  discovered  in  the  vestiges  of  the 
past,  in  the  eternal  aspects  of  the  soil,  the  underlying  causes 
which  determine  contemporary  events.  The  characters  which 
he  has  described  and  the  adventures  which  he  has  related  in 
his  novels  acquire  a  deeper  significance  by  the  chain  of  events 
of  which  they  are  the  result.  Thus  these  characters  and  adven- 
tures assume  the  quality  of  symbols,  thanks  to  the  historical, 
social,  philosophical  or  religious  ideas  of  which  they  become 
as  it  were  the  dramatic  masks.  ^ 

From  these  glorious  ruins,  from  these  vestiges  of  the  former 
greatness  of  his  ancestors,  the  Frenchman,  heir  to  a  past  so 
pregnant  with  meaning,  receives  the  silent  exhortation  to  per- 
severe in  his  effort  of  conquest  and  to  maintain  his  position  by 
his  thought  and  by  his  arms  against  the  perpetual  menace  of 
barbarism  (''en  face  de  la  barbaric  jamais  vaincue").  ^  Rome 
knew  well  that  no  peace  was  possible  with  the  barbarian,  and 
that  it  was  necessary  to  battle  ceaselessly,  if  only  for  the  beauty 
of  the  struggle.  For  when  a  nation  has  ceased  to  struggle,  it  is 
a  sign  that  death  is  at  hand.  Louis  Bertrand  prays  that  the 
youth  of  France  may  preserve  the  same  warlike  virtues  which 
urged  their  ancestors  towards  the  African  shores.  His  com- 
patriots must  not  forget  that  art  and  thought  dwindle  and  die 
in  countries  without  vigor,  which  have  deserted  the  sword  and 
the  plowshare ;  and  that  all  noble  qualities  have  been  extinguished 
in  men's  souls  as  soon  as  they  are  no  longer  prepared  for  sacrifice 
to  the  point  of  death .  * 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  Le  Jardin  de  la  Mort.,  p.  X,  XI. 

2  76irf,  pp.  XI,  XII. 

3  Le  Sens  de  I'Ennemi,  p.  161. 
*  Le  Jardin  de  la  Mort,  p.  248. 


50  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

All  of  a  nation's  cultivation  is  useless  unless  it  has  the  prestige 
of  force  to  impose  it — never  have  there  been  victorious  ideas 
except  in  the  wake  of  victorious  armies.  Without  the  military 
hegemony  of  Louis  XIV  the  spirit  of  French  classicism  would 
not  have  dominated  Europe,  and  it  took  the  defeat  of  1870  to 
open  French  eyes  to  what  M.  Bertrand  ironically  calls  the 
"beauties"  of  German  philosophy  and  philology.^  Right  is 
always  crushed  by  violence,  if  incapable  of  resisting  it.  Instead 
of  preparing  herself  for  the  inevitable  struggle,  France  has  made 
the  mistake  of  the  Roman  Empire  on  the  eve  of  the  invasions: 
she  has  armed  and  trained  her  African  subjects — a  dangerous 
measure,  for  the  barbarian  will  always  outnumber  his  master. « 

In  meditation  before  the  statue  of  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  M. 
Bertrand  laments  the  death  of  this  great  builder,  financier  and 
organizer,  who  dreamed  of  giving  France  a  vast  African  empire, 
"par  I'unique  efficace  de  la  propagande  religieuse  preparant  les 
voies  k  la  force  armee."  ^  This  Roman  prince  of  the  Church,  this 
conqueror  born  for  a  more  virile  age,  must  indeed  have  been 
saddened  by  the  asphyxiating  air  of  modern  mediocrity,  and 
by  the  servile  instincts  of  these  new  generations  who  are  no 
longer  willing  to  suffer  in  order  to  do  great  deeds,  *  The  pursuit 
of  a  commonplace  felicity  leads  the  masses  astray.  When 
peoples  renounce  the  pursuit  of  glory,  they  lose  even  their  daily 
bread,  and  it  is  only  victorious  peoples  who  have  the  right  to 
eat.  If  the  slave  is  to  satisfy  his  hunger,  the  table  of  the  master 
must  be  abundantly  served.  ^ 

Instead  of  aspiring  towards  a  peace  which  is  only  stagnation 
and  decomposition,  we  should  conceive  peace,  thinks  M.  Ber- 

^  Le  Sens  de  I'Ennemi,  p.  57. 

'  Le  Mirage  oriental,  p.  448. 

'  Le  Jardin  de  la  Mort,  p.  146. 

*  Compare:  "...  Assur^ment  les  pouvoirs  forts  font  des  peuples  grands 
et  prosperes.  Mais  les  peuples  ont  tant  souflFert,  au  long  des  siecles,  de  leur 
grandeur  et  de  leur  prosperite,  que  je  congois  qu'ils  y  renoncent.  La  gloire 
leur  a  coflt6  trop  cher  pour  qu'on  ne  sache  pas  gre  k  nos  maitres  actuels  de  ne 
nous  en  procurer  que  de  la  coloniale. "  Anatole  France,  L'Orme  du  Mail, 
p.  233. 

'  Le  Jardin  de  la  Mort,  p.  147. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     51 

trand,  as  a  perpetual  elaboration  of  power,  an  habitually  dynamic 
state,  a  co-ordination  and  a  progressive  intensification  of  all  our 
national  energies,  if  we  wish  to  deserve  to  live.  *  War  has  in 
itself  a  mystic  element  which  raises  the  masses  out  of  themselves, 
for  it  meets  a  need  of  the  most  profound  instincts  of  human 
nature,  from  the  desire  for  carnage  to  the  thirst  for  sacrifice, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  uproot  the  one  without  destroying  the 
other.  2  Pacifism  and  revolutionary  humanitarianism,  con- 
sidered as  universal  ideals,  have  been  proved  by  the  Great  War 
to  be  absolute  failures.  However  tired  of  war  a  nation  may  be, 
it  is  a  gain  of  no  mediocre  importance  to  have  recovered  a  taste 
for  violence,  and  to  have  again  become  accustomed  to  scorn 
human  life  and  the  shedding  of  blood.  Peoples  now  know  that 
vast  wars  can  continue  for  a  long  time  without  bringing  about 
the  financial  and  economic  ruin  with  which  we  were  threatened. 
Also,  they  can  get  used  to  anything  in  time;  a  thirty  or  a  hundred 
years' war  now  seems  to  us  an  ultra  modern  possibility — perhaps 
even  the  rule  of  the  future.  ^ 

The  doctrines  of  La  Declaration  des  Droits  de  V Homme  apply 
only  to  individuals  conscious  of  their  dignity,  and  not  to  the 
vast  mass  of  mortals  of  a  lower  order,  in  the  midst  of  which  the 
civilized  nations  are  as  a  small  island  lost  in  a  sea  of  barbarism. 
One  of  the  most  fatal  illusions  of  nineteenth-century  France 
was  to  believe  that  her  political  and  social  ideals  were  to  conquer 
the  universe.  \A'e  must  not  aspire  to  improve  humanity  at 
large,  for  our  own  country  is  enough  to  occupy  our  strength. 
Thus  in  Africa  the  Frenchman  learns  one  of  the  hardest  lessons 
for  him  to  understand:  to  comprehend  a  mentality  which  differs 
from  his  own.  Little  by  little  he  ceases  to  consider  himself  as 
a  model  for  the  universe.  He  gradually  comes  to  realize  that 
one  cannot  export  souls,  that  civilization  is  a  question  of  souls, 
and  that  each  race  has  its  own,  which  cannot  be  changed  or 
reduced  by  those  of  other  races.     An  Arab,  for  example,  does 

^  Le  Sens  de  VEnnemi,  p.  24. 

^  La  Renaissance  classique  (1903),  p.  36. 

'  Louis  Bertrand,  Les  pays  mediterraneens  et  la  guerre   (1917),  pp.  167,  168. 


52  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

not  regard  liberty  as  do  the  French,  and  he  scorns  their  attempts 
to  free  him  from  what  they  call  his  fanaticism.  He  informs 
them  proudly  that  it  is  exactly  suited  to  his  needs,  since  it  is 
his  "raison  de  vivre"  and  his  safeguard  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  foreigner. 

Neither  societies  nor  individuals,  continues  Louis  Bertrand, 
are  governed  by  abstract  principles,  but  by  laws  similar  to 
those  of  biology.  To  wish  to  establish  on  earth  the  reign  of 
Reason,  Justice,  or  of  the  Son  of  God,  is  to  have  lost  the  compre- 
hension of  the  fall  of  man  and  the  distinction  between  Good  and 
Evil.  Pacifists  and  humanitarians  are  dupes  of  a  mirage — 
their  renouncement  is  only  the  weak  selfishness  of  the  dilettante, 
and  their  pacifism  a  shameful  following  of  the  line  of  least 
resistance.  France  must  realize  that  her  democracy  is  nothing 
but  an  outworn  and  deadly  Utopia,  which  almost  destroyed  her, 
and  of  which  she  must  purge  herself  at  all  costs.  If  Frenchmen 
will  look  abroad,  they  will  see  that  all  nations  are  resolutely 
turning  their  backs  on  the  doctrines  of  the  Declaration  of  the 
Rights  of  Man  and  of  universal  fraternity,  and  walling  them- 
selves in  a  sacred  egotism  or  plunging  into  the  most  violent 
imperialism.  France  must  realize  under  pain  of  death  that 
the  principles  of  her  Revolution  are  in  contradiction  with  all 
of  the  instincts  of  the  modern  world.  Abroad  no  one  considers 
them  at  all  except  a  few  professors,  who  see  in  any  local  success 
which  these  principles  may  have,  simply  a  sign  of  decadence.  ^ 
The  world  is  more  than  ever  turning  from  democracy  as  the 
nineteenth  century  conceived  it,  for  Socialism  has  killed  the 
old-fashioned  liberalism  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  the  class 
struggle  has  ruined  the  principle  of  fraternity.  It  is  a  dangerous 
equivocation  to  say  that  the  Great  War  was  fought  for  democracy 
or  for  the  triumph  of  democratic  ideas,  since  the  success  of  the 
revolutionary  type  of  democracy  would  result  in  advancing  the 
interests  of  Germany.  A  democracy,  however,  which  would 
distribute  rewards  in  proportion  to  merit,  and  co-ordinate  the 
national    energies,   while   resting   on    the   whole   people,    could 

'  Le  Sens  de  I'Ennemi,  pp.  10-24, 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IF  FRANCE     53 

probably  succeed  well  under  a  monarchical  form  of  government.  ^ 
The  average  Frenchman,  believes  Louis  Bertrand,  lacks  the 
"sens  de  I'ennemi"  so  strongly  possessed  by  the  Lorraine  and 
Catalan  peoples — that  state  of  constant  qui-vive  which  leads  the 
borderer  to  distrust  the  stranger  and  instinctively  to  put  himself 
on  the  defensive  against  him  as  against  an  enemy.  Most  errors 
in  international  politics  may  be  traced  to  a  lack  of  this  under- 
standing. For  example,  it  required  the  intrepid  ignorance  of  a 
Jaur^s  to  speak,  as  he  did,  of  the  Ottoman  nation  or  of  the 
Moroccan  nation,  when  all  who  know  the  Orient  are  aware  of 
the  fact  that  distinctions  between  peoples  there  are  along  ethnical 
and  religious  rather  than  national  lines.  Thus  the  ten  years 
which  Louis  Bertrand  spent  in  Africa,  by  teaching  him  "le  sens 
colonial,"  which  is  allied  to  "le  sens  de  I'ennemi",  showed  him 
the  folly  of  dreaming  of  any  union  of  the  European  and  the 
Moslem  peoples.  Too  many  irreducible  differences  separate 
them.  In  all  his  ten  years  in  Algeria,  the  author  of  Le  Mirage 
oriental  was  never  able  to  consider  the  Arab  as  a  brother,  either 
as  saved  by  Christ,  or  platonically  freed  by  La  D  eclaration  des 
Droits  de  rHomme.  Realizing  then  that  any  fusion  or  unity 
either  of  blood  or  of  souls  was  not  possible,  M.  Bertrand  came 
to  understand  that  the  European  can  maintain  his  position  in 
the  lands  of  Islam  only  by  force  of  arms,  for  the  Mohammedan 
respects  only  those  whom  he  fears.  2 

Confronted  by  the  barbarian,  the  French  traveller  or  colonist 
rapidly  loses  his  fondness  for  Utopian  ideas,  a  lesson  which  is 
further  re-enforced  by  contact  with  the  delicately  realistic  spirit 
of  the  Italian.  For  the  Italians  have  "la  belle  rudesse"  of  new 
peoples,  not  yet  weakened  by  an  excess  of  well-being  or  intel- 
lectual culture,  and  are  vigorous  and  astonishingly  prolific. 
They  have  a  taste  for  action,  not,  like  so  many  of  the  French, 
for  the  sake  of  an  occupation,  but  to  get  something,  no  matter 
how  or  where.  The  French  will  find  in  them  not  only  partners, 
but  stimulators  and  creators  of  energy.     The  more  primitive 

1  Les  pays  mediterr aniens  et  la  guerre,  p.  VI. 
'  Le  Mirage  oriental,  pp.  97-105. 


54  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

Italians  such  as  the  Calabrians,  being  half  barbarian  themselves, 
will  better  be  able  to  resist  the  Moslem,  the  real  barbarian. 

From  the  Spaniard  also  the  Frenchman  may  learn  a  salutary 
lesson  by  studying  this  race  whose  moral  energy  is  intact,  which 
has  not  been  rendered  too  sophisticated  by  literature,  nor 
softened  by  an  excess  of  comfort.  Among  the  Mediterranean 
peoples  who  were  struggling  over  the  division  of  the  fruits  of 
the  conquest  of  Algeria,  it  was  the  Iberian  who  most  favorably 
impressed  M.  Bertrand  when  he  began  to  study  these  new  peoples. 
For  in  spite  of  what  Louis  Bertrand  calls  the  characteristic  faults 
of  the  Spaniard  of  the  colonies;  brutality,  "ruse  carthaginoise" 
and  usurious  instincts,  this  race  inspired  the  respect  of  the 
novelist  by  their  endurance  as  well  as  by  a  proud  attitude  and 
a  certain  outer  dignity.  ^ 

It  was  by  contemplating  the  competition  of  the  Mediterranean 
peoples  in  Algeria,  and  by  observing  their  points  of  resemblance 
to  each  other,  that  Louis  Bertrand  came  to  realize  the  possi- 
bilities of  their  union  in  North  Africa,  as  in  a  common  Latin 
fatherland.  Slowly  the  racial  similarity,  the  influence  of  a 
common  climate,  and  the  necessity  of  unity  before  the  Moslem 
native  were  forcing  the  Latin  races  together  and  producing  a 
common  type.  If  the  new  people  thus  being  born  is  showing 
an  energy  and  an  endurance  greater  than  in  the  European 
provinces  of  their  origin,  they  are  also  acquiring  in  Africa  some 
of  the  age-old  vices  of  its  inhabitants,  such  as  the  ancient  Semitic 
spirit  of  Carthage,  with  its  trickery,  fanaticism  and  cruelty. 
By  contact  with  the  Arab  and  the  Jew,  the  immigrant,  in  a 
natural  and  inevitable  way,  is  coming  to  acquire  many  of  the 
distinguishing  characteristics  of  these  races.  ^ 

Such  considerations  must  be  of  minor  importance  however, 
for  during  the  twenty  years  from  Le  Sang  des  races  to  Saint 
Augustin,  Louis  Bertrand  has  illustrated,  developed  and  preached 
to  the  French  the  necessity  for  the  union  of  the  Latin  peoples 

*  Le  Sens  de  VEnnemi,  p.  196. 

2  Louis  Bertrand,  Flaubert  et  I'Afrique,  Revue  de  Paris,  7th  year,  April  1, 
1900. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OP  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     55 

as  the  only  means  of  revivifying  them  and  restoring  to  them  the 
preponderance  and  the  place  they  once  held  in  the  world. '  In 
the  eloquent  lines  of  the  "Reconnaissance  k  I'Afrique"  M. 
Bertrand  has  thus  proclaimed  his  faith  and  his  hope  for  the 
future:  "...  Tu  m'enseignas  le  culte  salutaire  de  la  force,  de  la 
sant^,  de  I'^nergie  virile.  Tu  rattachas  ma  pens6e  egar6e  au 
solide  appui  de  la  tradition,  en  6talant  sous  mes  yeux  la  majesty 
de  tes  mines,  en  me  jetant  parmi  des  peuples  venus  de  tous  les 
bords  de  la  M^diterran^e  maternelle,  et  dont  la  conscience  est 
soeur  de  la  mienne.  .  .  Ah!  puissent-ils,  en  se  retrouvant  sur 
ton  sol,  reprendre  avec  ferveur  le  sentiment  invincible  de  la 
fraternite  qui  les  unissait  jadis!  Puisse  cette  mer,  oil  je  suis, 
redevenir,  comme  au  temps  de  Rome  la  Grande,  k  la  fois  le 
symbole  et  le  chemin  de  I'Alliance  entre  les  nations  latines!.  .  . 
Mare  nostrum!  Qu'elle  soit  notre  mer  a  tout  jamais!  Defen- 
dons-la  contre  les  Barbares,  pour  refaire  Tunit^  de 
I'Empire!.  .  .   "2 

While  Louis  Bertrand  is  attracted  to  the  Spaniards,  even  more 
than  to  the  other  Mediterranean  peoples,  by  sociological  and 
patriotic  reasons,  his  partiality  for  them  may  be  explained  on 
more  fundamental  grounds.  It  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  instincts 
of  his  race  and  the  influence  of  his  early  environment.  The 
people  of  Lorraine  have  a  secret  leaning  towards  Spain,  for  the 
north  of  their  country  was  long  under  the  domination  of  Spanish 
kings,  while  for  many  years  the  soldiers  of  Lorraine  fought  in 
the  Peninsula.  Damvillers,  near  which  M.  Bertrand  was  born, 
was  one  of  the  last  citadels  of  Spain  in  Lorraine.  Some  of  the 
Iberian  adventurers  of  her  garrisons  must,  M.  Bertrand  believes, 
have  settled  in  the  country,  for  the  large  dark  eyes,  black  hair 
and  square  faces  with  protruding  cheek  bones  so  common  in  the 
district,  are  quite  unlike  the  prevailing  Northern  type  of  face. 
The  very  architecture  of  the  churches  in  Valencia,  and  the  form 
of  their  spires,  recalled  to  Louis  Bertrand  those  of  his  native 
province.     The  attraction  which  his  compatriots  feel  for  things 

^  Les  pays  miditerraneens  et  la  guerre,  p.  186. 
»  Le  Jardin  de  la  Mart,  pp.  307,  308. 


56  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

Spanish  seems  to  him  as  evident  as  it  is  general.  Hugo,  "le 
grand  Lorrain,"  furnishes  the  most  striking  example.  The 
author  of  Hernani  and  Ruy  Bias  appeals  to  the  Lorraine  taste  not 
only  by  his  color,  the  vigor  of  his  temperament  and  the  pas- 
sionate energy  of  his  character,  but  by  a  certain  harshness  and 
roughness.  Especially  do  those  of  Louis  Bertrand's  race  admire 
in  the  Spanish  character  its  gravity,  its  seriousness,  its  disdain 
of  useless  architectural  ornamentation  and  its  profound  taste 
for  realities.  The  Spaniards,  in  the  opinion  of  Louis  Bertrand, 
are  the  most  realistic  of  peoples,  who  even  in  the  lofty  regions  of 
mystic  thought  aspire  to  keep  in  touch  with  those  concrete 
forms  which  are  easily  accessible  to  the  mind. 

The  French  imagination  has  often  found  in  the  customs  and 
literature  of  Spain  a  salutary  tonic.  Periodically,  thinks  M. 
Bertrand,  France  has  crossed  the  Pyrenees  to  recover  or  to 
renew  her  understanding  of  life.  While  in  periods  of  calm 
France  falls  back  on  her  own  traditions,  customs  and  landscapes, 
*'aux  epoques  de  renouveau,  de  fougue  et  d'energie  creatrices, 
de  grandes  illusions  aussi,  nous  nous  empressons  de  franchir 
nos  frontieres.  Et  c'est  toujours  vers  le  Midi  que  nous  nous 
tournons,  vers  I'Espagne  et  vers  ITtalie,  comme  les  terres  elues 
de  la  passion  et  de  la  beaute."  While  the  first  French  renas- 
cence, continues  M.  Bertrand,  was  almost  entirely  Italian, 
Corneille  and  his  contemporaries  drew  heavily  upon  Spain  for 
their  inspiration;  The  romanticists,  though  they  had  no  very 
extensive  knowledge  of  the  literatures  of  the  Southern  neighbors 
of  France,  had  yet  travelled  widely  in  these  countries,  and  loved 
to  place  in  them  the  scenes  of  their  stories  and  their  dramas.  ^ 

Such  are  the  reasons  which  have  led  Louis  Bertrand  to  Spain, 
which  he  has  visited  each  year  for  the  past  twenty,  and  which 
has  left  a  clear  imprint  upon  seven  of  his  nine  novels.  Instinc- 
tively, on  returning  to  this  land  of  his  predilection,  he  has 
sojourned  longest  in  those  parts  which  live  and  act  most  in- 
tensely. He  has  always  preferred  the  great  cities  of  joy,  of  labor 
and  of  color  such  as  Valencia,  Seville  and  Barcelona.     These 

^  Le  Sens  de  VEnnemi,  pp.  205,  206. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     57 

cities  of  modern  Spain  not  only  announce  the  future  to  the 
noveHst,  but  even  better  than  museums  and  art  galleries  they 
reveal  to  him  her  past.  He  reads  it  in  the  living  souls  of  the 
Spaniards  of  today,  who  perpetuate,  under  other  appearances 
and  new  conditions,  the  gestures  and  the  characteristics  of  their 
ancestors.  The  active  Spaniard  of  the  present  enables  the 
author  of  VInfante  to  comprehend  the  contemporaries  of 
Philip  II.  Louis  Bertrand  never  really  understood  the  spirit  of 
Cortes  and  the  other  conquistador es  until  he  had  himself  followed 
into  South  Algeria  the  Valencian  and  Castilian  carters.  ^ 

It  is  by  using  this  knowledge  of  the  past  to  illumine  the  present 
that  the  historical  novel  justifies  and  renews  itself.  The  his- 
torical novelist  should  express  what  is  permanent  and  universal 
in  a  phenomenon  or  a  series  of  events  of  other  days,  and  should 
interpret  the  great  ideas  which  determined  the  actions  of  a 
people  or  of  an  epoch.  Ke  should  try  to  discover  and  expose 
the  innermost  sensibility  of  a  bygone  age  by  joining  documentary 
solidity  and  scientific  criticism  to  a  creative  imagination.  Con- 
sidering a  contemporary  event  under  its  historical  aspects 
gives  it  a  meaning  and  a  poetic  prestige  which  the  bare  fact 
would  not  possess.  Thus  in  all  his  African  novels,  says  M. 
Bertrand,  he  has  attempted  to  compare  the  present  and  the 
past,  and  to  show,  under  the  differences  of  time  and  environ- 
ment, the  secret  continuity  of  a  tradition  or  an  ideal,  and  the 
perpetuity  of  a  race.  2 

The  present,  the  passing  moment,  is  by  no  means  all  of  life, 
which  is  really  the  sum  of  the  past,  as  it  is  a  prophecy  of  the 
future.  Life  is  also,  for  Louis  Bertrand,  a  thought,  an  art 
and  a  tradition,  whose  portrayal  must  be  characterized  by  order, 
intelligibility  and  harmony.  Everything  which  does  not  bear 
these  distinguishing  marks,  such  as  the  abnormal  and  the 
hybrid,  should  be  ignored  or  subordinated,  as  bordering  on  the 

^Ihid.,  pp.  212-215. 

2  Louis  Bertrand,  Une  Evolution  nouvelle  du  Roman  historique,  Revue  de 
Paris,  28th  year,  Vol.  3,  May  15,  1921. 


58  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

non-existent.  ^  M.  Bertrand  has  always  striven  to  reconcile 
life  with  art,  and  thus  to  create  that  living  beauty  which  is  only 
the  harmonious  expression  of  realities.  He  has  adopted  the 
classic  conception  of  art  which,  neglecting  the  appearance  of 
phenomena,  considers  only  their  substantial  reality  and  their 
eternal  aspect.  These  realities  can  only  be  grasped  by  the 
exercise  of  a  poetic  imagination,  which  is  a  gift  essential  for 
the  comprehension  and  portrayal  of  truth. 

While  careful  to  paint  life  and  nature  truthfully,  the  artist 
may  present  them  in  their  most  ideal  forms.  The  characters 
which  he  presents,  whether  virtuous  or  vicious,  should  be  de- 
picted in  their  most  complete  manifestations.  Thus  will  the 
artist  be  fulfilling  his  duty  to  his  fellow  men,  for  he  instructs 
them  by  placing  before  their  eyes  complete  human  types  which 
convey  their  lesson  effectively  without  need  of  preaching  or 
moralizing  on  the  part  of  the  writer.  The  clearness  of  the  lines 
with  which  these  portraits  are  drawn  should  be  scrupulously 
observed,  and  the  painting  should  contain  nothing  which  does 
not  serve  to  explain  the  souls  of  the  characters,  or  to  render 
comprehensible  their  actions  and  gestures.  If  the  novelist 
observes  these  great  classic  precepts,  form,  which  is  nothing 
more  than  perfected  content,  will  be  blended  with  it  to  produce  a 
work  of  both  the  most  strict  unity  and  the  richest  diversity.  * 

Like  the  great  writers  of  classicism,  and  also  Flaubert,  Louis 
Bertrand  believes  that  the  novelist  should  observe  the  most 
absolute  impersonality.  He  limits  himself  to  presenting,  and 
does  not  make  his  heroes  the  spokesmen  for  his  own  ideas. 
The  author  of  La  Cina  states  in  the  most  positive  fashion  that 
he  simply  causes  his  creations  to  express  in  literary  form  ideas 
often  uttered  in  his  presence,  and  that  he  requires  their  thought 
to  conform  to  the  logic  of  their  characters. » 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  L'ltalie  dans  I'osuvre  de  M.  Henri  de  Rignier,  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes,  Vol.  63,  June  1,  1921. 

'  La  Renaissance  classique,  pp.  29-39. 

'  La  Cina,  Preface,  p.  IX.  This  idea  is  cited  and  discussed  at  greater 
jength  on  page  101  of  this  paper. 


A   PHASE  OF  rilE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     59 

While  the  principle  of  the  impersonality  of  art  is  a  naturalistic 
as  well  as  a  classical  characteristic,  M.  Bertrand  has  repeatedly 
affirmed  that  there  are  radical  differences  between  his  conception 
of  literature  and  that  of  Zola  and  his  school.  The  author  of 
Le  Sang  des  races  admits  that  at  one  time  he  was  somewhat  under 
the  influence  of  Taine  and  the  naturalists.  ^  He  soon  discovered, 
however,  that  the  naturalists  had  misunderstood  the  central 
thought  of  the  philosopher;  for  of  his  three  factors,  "la  race, 
le  milieu  et  le  moment",  they  appeared  to  remember  only  the 
second,  while  deforming  its  real  meaning.  For  M.  Bertrand 
"le  milieu"  signifies  the  life-giving  soil  which  fashions  the 
individual,  and  the  bond  of  the  permanent  and  primordial  forces 
which  determine  his  type.  To  the  naturalists,  on  the  other 
hand,  "le  millieu",  thinks  M.  Bertrand,  was  the  "pele-mele" 
of  contingent  phenomena  which  came  within  the  reach  of  the 
literary  observer.  Their  much  boasted  documentation  was 
superficial,  and  too  limited  in  scope,  since  it  excluded  all  time 
but  the  present.  Their  pessimism  offends  Louis  Bertrand  even 
more  than  does  that  of  the  romanticists,  since  it  is  more  cruel 
and  hopeless.  In  spite  of  their  claim  to  present  reality  with 
scientific  exactness,  the  naturalists  held  the  real  in  horror,  for 
in  their  heavy  and  formless  works  man  disappears  in  the  immen- 
sity of  nature.  ^  Zola  and  his  followers  believed  in  an  undefined 
sort  of  progress,  and  erected  nature  as  the  only  truth  and  religion. 
Their  teachings,  making  of  man  a  mere  brute  dominated  by  his 
instincts,  would  destroy  civilization  as  we  know  it,  since  the 
human  brute  is  in  essence  revolutionary.  When  freed  from 
restraint,  such  men  tend  to  destroy  tradition,  which  is  the 
stored-up  wisdom  of  humanity  slowly  amassed  throughout  the 
centuries.  ^ 

For  the  form  of  his  writings,  Louis  Bertrand  tells  us  that  he 

1  Louis  Bertrand,    Une  Evolution  nouvelle  du  Roman  historique,  Revue  de 
Paris,  28th  year,  Vol.  3,  May  15,  1921. 

2  La  Renaissance  dassique,  p.  12. 

3  Louis  Bertrand,  L'CEuvre  de  M.  Paul  Bout  get,  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes 
Vol.  60.  December  15.  1920. 


60  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

went  back  to  antiquity,  and  drew  his  inspiration  from  the  texts 
of  the  Greek  and  Latin  masters.  From  them  he  learned  a 
"freedom  and  a  grandeur  of  composition  of  which  modern 
writers  have  no  idea,"  and  of  which  the  French  classicists 
themselves  were  ignorant.  The  multiplication  of  episodes,  not 
grouped  by  chance,  but  in  accordance  with  aesthetic  rather  than 
logical  affinities,  allowed  the  ancients  to  present  a  character 
under  an  extreme  variety  of  circumstances,  and  in  such  a  way  as 
to  illumine  all  of  its  aspects.  It  is  the  principles  of  this  com- 
position, "subtile  et  souple,  et  avec  cela,  tres  large",  which  he 
has  followed  in  his  earlier  novels.  After  the  example  of  the 
ancients,  again,  M.  Bertrand  conceives  the  "action"  of  a  novel 
as  a  sort  of  potential  power;  "c'est  une  virtualite,  une  puissance 
qui  passe  k  I'acte."  The  novelist  only  leaves  his  hero  when  the 
latter  has  realized  "a  decisive  and  truly  characteristic  enrich- 
ment" of  his  individuality.  The  essential  action  consists  in 
depicting  the  human  being  as  developing  all  of  his  powers, 
rather  than  as  simply  the  helpless  victim  of  sentimental  crises 
or  reacting  in  accordance  with  the  pressure  of  circumstances. 
In  a  novel  which  portrays  action  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word, 
the  hero  must  accomplish  a  marked  and  genuine  progress,  **.  .  . 
il  faut.  .   .  qu'il  ait  veritablement  augmente  son  ^tre."  ^ 

^  Preface  to  the  1920  edition  of  Le  Sang  des  races,  p.  10. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     61 


The  African  Novels  of  Louis  Bertrand 
Le  Sang  des  races 

The  story  opens  at  Algiers  at  a  period  when  an  era  of  con- 
struction was  filling  the  city  and  its  suburbs  with  large  numbers 
of  workmen.  The  greater  part  of  these  men  came  from  Medi- 
terranean countries,  drawn  to  Africa  by  the  opportunity  for  work 
and  for  a  larger  life  than  that  afforded  by  their  native  provinces. 
Among  these  immigrants  is  a  youth  named  Ramon,  who  had 
landed  in  Algiers  the  year  before,  driven  by  hunger  from  his 
native  village  near  Alicante,  in  the  south  of  Spain.  After 
working  for  a  short  time  as  a  quarryman,  Ramon  takes  up  the 
trade  of  the  carter,  in  which  his  endurance  and  energy  soon 
bring  him  success.  He  marries  a  tall  and  handsome  Valencian 
girl  named  Rosa.  They  have  a  son  whom  they  christen  Rafael, 
and  who,  as  he  grows  into  early  manhood,  shows  an  instinctive 
taste  for  his  father's  trade.  When  Rafael  was  sixteen,  Ramon 
died,  and  the  lad  became  the  head  of  the  now  numerous  family. 

Before  long  the  youth  shows  that  he  possesses  the  energy  of 
his  race,  and  that  he  has  inherited  all  of  his  father's  skill  in  the 
handling  of  animals.  The  carter  was  well  paid  at  this  time, 
for  the  task  of  driving  heavy  carts  across  the  burning  deserts  to 
frontier  posts  was  one  which  only  the  most  hardy  cared  to  under- 
take. Rafael's  life  of  strenuous  toil,  relieved  only  by  short 
periods  of  almost  equally  strenuous  recreation,  was  varied  only 
by  an  excursion  to  Valencia,  where  he  is  very  much  bored,  and 
whence  he  returns  to  Africa  as  soon  as  possible.  Rafael  becomes 
engaged  to  a  handsome  girl  of  his  own  race  named  Assompcion. 
This  event,  and  the  tragic  death  of  a  younger  brother,  have  a 
steadying  effect  upon  him,  and  the  closing  lines  of  the  book 
show  the  young  man  starting  on  a  long  trip  across  the  desert, 
filled  with  a  quiet  joy  in  the  thought  of  his  work  and  of  his 
approaching  marriage. 


62  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

As  an  illustration  of  the  doctrine  that  Africa  is  a  school  of 
energy  for  the  European,  M.  Bertrand  describes  Ram6n  as 
displaying  the  eagerness  for  gain  and  the  "endurance  of  races 
whose  energy  has  long  been  somnolent."  The  Spaniards  in  the 
novel  considered  this  half-wild  Africa  as  their  conquest — they 
forced  the  arid  soil  to  produce,  and  with  superhuman  effort, 
drove  heavy  carts  loaded  with  food  and  construction  materials 
across  the  shifting  sands  of  the  Sahara  to  the  most  distant 
border  posts.  They  display  the  ancient  "ruse  carthaginoise", 
for  all  of  them  plunder  the  Arab,  the  European,  and  even  each 
other,  and  resemble  those  of  their  ancestors  who  set  out  in  bands 
from  the  ports  of  San  Lucar  and  Palos  to  conquer  the  gold  of 
Peru  and  Mexico.  During  an  insurrection  of  the  natives, 
Ramon  gained  large  sums  of  money  by  selling  powder  to  the 
Arabs,  at  great  risk  of  being  shot  by  the  French;  this  powder, 
however,  was  often  nothing  more  than  crushed  charcoal. 

His  son  Rafael  early  developed  the  salient  traits  of  his  race. 
Like  most  Neo-Africans,  Rafael  loved  personal  adornment  and 
fine  clothes.  He  especially  admired  the  handsomely  draped 
Provencal  smocks,  with  their  ample  and  carefully  arranged  folds, 
which  shone  like  satin  in  the  bright  African  sun.  The  carters 
returning  from  the  South  excited  his  emulation  by  the  luxurious 
smocks  and  the  velvet  suits  which  they  displayed  with  such  pride. 
Rafael's  enthusiasm  for  the  highway  overcame  the  opposition  of 
his  mother,  and  he  accepted  an  offer  to  join  a  provision  train  of 
three  carts  which  was  setting  out  for  Laghouat.  As  Rafael  set 
forth  on  his  first  long  trip,  he  was  exalted  by  a  feeling  of  infinite 
peace  and  liberty.  His  pride  at  the  ease  with  which  he  con- 
trolled and  dominated  his  team  of  eleven  mules,  and  the  happi- 
ness which  he  felt  at  the  thought  that  he  was  bound  for  the 
mysterious  South  caused  him  to  crack  his  whip  loudly  in  order 
to  afifirm  his  joy  in  life  and  effort,  and  in  the  overflowing  vitality 
of  his  strength  and  energy. 

The  route  was  long  and  arduous,  but  Rafael  enjoyed  it  to 
the  full.  Neither  the  burning  sun  nor  the  blinding  light  daunted 
him;  he  looked  out  upon  the  desert  with  eager  eyes,  as  though 
through  them  he  could  absorb  the  rugged  strength  of  this  country 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     63 

where  he  felt  that  he  was  to  pass  his  life.  Filled  with  admiration 
in  the  presence  of  the  vast  open  spaces  which  stretch  out  before 
him,  Rafael  thinks  with  pity  of  his  former  comrades,  shut  in  by 
the  walls  of  the  quarry  and  the  narrow  streets  of  Algiers,  under 
the  watchful  eye  of  the  foreman  or  of  the  policeman.  Even 
when  tortured  by  thirst,  that  terror  of  the  desert  lands,  Rafael 
did  not  long  for  the  city,  exalted  as  he  was  by  a  vision  of  the 
South  and  by  a  sort  of  joy  of  conquest.  Under  the  scorching 
waves  of  heat  his  energy  redoubled,  and  he  was  filled  with  a 
feeling  of  triumph  that  his  veins  were  swelling  with  blood  more 
ardent  than  the  blazing  sun. 

Among  Rafael's  companions  of  the  route,  Vicente,  also  of 
Spanish  origin,  stands  out  as  the  most  vividly  drawn.  Much 
older  than  Rafael,  his  hair  was  already  turning  gray,  though  he 
was  not  much  over  forty.  His  narrow  eyes  glittered  like  those 
of  a  bird  of  prey,  with  a  sort  of  flaming  yellow  light.  The  nose, 
broken  by  the  kick  of  a  mule,  the  cheek,  furrowed  by  the  scar 
of  a  knife  cut,  and  the  expression  of  the  eyes  lent  to  Vicente's 
face  an  appearance  of  terrible  will  and  energy.  The  other 
carters  show  in  different  degrees  the  same  characteristics.  In 
almost  all  of  them  instincts  of  cunning  and  ferocity  are  revealed 
by  their  tightly  closed  lips  and  the  glitter  of  the  pupils  under 
the  blinking  eyelids.  But  when  the  force  of  their  wills  seemed  to 
slumber  in  moments  of  dreamy  relaxation,  their  faces  could 
assume  a  sort  of  candid  and  youthful  charm. 

After  short  periods  of  relaxation  in  the  city,  Rafael  would 
return  to  the  desert  highways  with  the  same  instinctive  love  as 
at  first.  Gradually  he  acquired  a  reputation  for  skill  in  handling 
animals  and  for  tireless  energy.  He  loved  and  understood  his 
cart  as  though  it  were  part  of  his  own  body.  Every  sound  and 
every  creak  contained  a  meaning  for  him,  and  had  the  load 
been  upon  his  own  shoulders,  he  could  not  have  distributed  it 
with  more  care.  But  above  all  he  loves  his  mules.  The  force 
of  his  will  sustains  their  blind  instinct.  At  the  mere  sound  of 
his  voice  they  strain  forward,  and  when  they  are  pulling  well 
together,  Rafael  feels  so  exalted  that  he  begins  to  sing  joyously. 

After  he  had  become  engaged  Rafael  spent  much  more  time 


64  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

at  home,  and  in  the  quarter.  His  prestige  as  a  traveller  and  as  a 
master  of  his  trade  increased,  and  he  gradually  became  the 
model  of  the  youths  of  the  district.  His  gestures,  his  turns  of 
speech  and  his  smocks  were  widely  imitated.  His  sonorous 
voice  often  resounded  now  in  the  cafes  of  Bab-el-Oued,  the 
suburb  of  Algiers  in  which  was  his  home.  Always  sure  of  a 
respectful  and  admiring  audience,  Rafael  was  somewhat  spoiled 
by  success.  He  embroidered  the  narratives  of  his  adventures, 
often  enlarging  them  to  attain  the  measure  of  whatever  high- 
sounding  phrases  came  to  his  mind.  In  proportion  as  he  was 
carried  away  by  his  subject,  metaphors,  constantly  growing  more 
vivid,  crowded  to  his  lips  as  though  he  could  not  find  words 
adequate  to  communicate  to  others  the  ardent  flame  of  his 
poetic  imagination.  Rafael  was  not  universally  liked,  for  his 
overweening  pride  and  the  seriousness  of  his  character  excluded 
commonplace  and  easy-going  comradeship.  But  even  the 
oldest  teamsters  showed  him  deference,  for  they  loved  to  con- 
template his  strength  and  to  admire  in  him  the  superb  vigor  of 
their  race. 

During  one  of  his  absences  in  the  South,  Rafael  learned  that 
his  younger  brother,  Juanete,  who  had  been  ill  for  some  time, 
was  in  a  serious  condition.  The  carter  hastened  home,  only  to 
be  greeted  upon  his  arrival  with  the  news  of  his  brother's  death. 
He  received  the  information  impassively,  and  his  only  feeling 
upon  gazing  at  the  body,  was  one  of  disgust  and  fear.  Life 
coursed  so  vigorously  through  the  veins  of  this  strong  man  that 
he  could  not  endure  the  thought  that  soon  he  too  might  be  like 
this  pitiful  figure  on  the  bed. 

The  lamentations  of  the  stricken  mother  resounded  through 
the  house.  The  simple  and  elemental  violence  of  her  grief  had 
in  it  something  of  the  primitive  grandeur  of  the  mothers  of 
antiquity.  Standing  at  the  foot  of  the  bed  where  the  body  of 
her  son  was  lying,  Rosa,  "...  tendait  en  un  grand  gestesesbras 
robustes  de  travailleuse,  les  paumes  des  mains  ouvertes.  Ses 
doigts  tremblaient  par  la  violence  qui  secouait  tout  son  corps, 
et  sa  bouche  hurlante  se  creusait  en  un  trou  noir,  comme  celle 
des  statues.     Elle  invectivait  la  mort.  .  .  .  Puis,   songeant  aux 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     65 

folles  coupablcs  de  Ram6n  enivre  par  Tabondance  de  TAfrique, 
emporte  par  I'ardeur  de  la  terre,  elle  reprit:  'Pourquoi  n*es-tu 
pas  retourne  au  pays  de  ton  p^re?  Pourquoi  es-tu  rest6  dans 
cette  Afrique  maudite?  C'est  son  soleil  qui  t'a  brflle  le  sang — 
c'est  le  soleil  maudit  qui  a  tu6  mon  fils!  .  .  .' 

"Elle  battait  avec  ses  mains  ses  vastes  flancs  de  m^re  feconde, 
capable  de  concevoir  encore.  Son  visage  de  pierre  s'  etait  noye 
au  torrent  de  ses  larmes.  Elle  tomba  k  genoux,  en  embrassant 
les  pieds  du  mort,  et  elle  resta  ainsi,  la  tete  cachee  dans  le  linceul 
et  sanglotant."  ^ 

Soon  after  the  death  of  his  brother  Rafael  again  took  up  his 
task.  He  felt  the  same  sentiment  of  peace  and  freedom  as  on 
the  night  of  his  first  departure.  Now  he  was  sure  of  his  way 
through  the  desert  and  through  life.  He  knew  that  young  men, 
in  whose  veins  was  fermenting  the  wine  of  life,  spoke  of  him 
at  the  family  table,  and  that  soon  beings  of  his  own  blood  would 
perpetuate  the  grandeur  and  the  beauty  of  his  work.  Then 
Rafael,  *'.  .  .  la  pensee  remplie  de  ses  noces  prochaines,  dans 
la  joie  de  sa  force.  .  .  redescendit  vers  le  Sud."  ^ 

La  Cina 

Michel  Botteri  and  Claude  Gelee,  two  young  Frenchmen  of 
independent  fortune  and  good  education,  after  a  period  of  rather 
aimless  travel,  resolve  to  lead  a  life  of  useful  activity,  and  decide, 
in  order  to  gratify  this  ambition,  to  go  to  Algeria,  where  the 
father  of  Michel  had  left  a  famous  name  and  a  considerable 
estate.  Upon  their  arrival  in  Africa  they  take  up  their  residence 
in  the  villa  which  Michel's  father  had  built  at  Tipasa.  Michel 
is  joined  by  his  wife,  whose  maiden  name  had  been  F^licienne 
Colona.  The  Italian  diminutive  of  Felicienne,  "La  Cina", 
furnishes  the  title  of  the  book.  The  villa  was  built  upon  the 
site  of  an  old  Roman  city  which  dated  from  the  time  of  King 
Juba,  King  of  Numidia,  and  the  whole  estate  was  rich  in  ruins 

^  Le  Sang  des  races,  pp.  332,  333. 

'  Closing  lines  of  Le  Sang  des  races,  p.  344  in  the  1899  edition,  and  p.  343 
of  the  1920  edition. 


66  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

of  the  old  Roman  city.  These  ruins  inspire  the  archaeologist, 
Paul  Hartmann,  a  frequent  and  welcome  visitor  at  the  villa,  to 
express  many  theories  upon  the  continuity  of  Latin  tradition, 
North  Africa  as  a  land  long  coveted  by  the  Mediterranean  peo- 
ples, and  other  ideas  often  found  elsewhere  in  the  works  of 
Louis  Bertrand. 

Michel  decides  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  office  of  deputy, 
but  is  unable  to  obtain  the  support  of  the  powerful  Archbishop 
of  Algiers,  Mgr.  Puig,  and,  becoming  disgusted,  furthermore, 
by  the  excesses  of  the  leader  of  the  anti-Semitic  movement,  the 
popular  lawyer  Carmelo,  without  whose  support  election  was 
impossible,  he  withdraws  from  the  contest. 

Claude,  after  travelling  extensively  in  North  Africa,  visits 
the  farm  of  a  successful  Alsatian  colonist  named  Schirrer.  The 
latter  invites  the  young  man  to  spend  a  year  with  him,  at  the 
end  of  which  time,  he  thinks,  Claude  will  be  capable  of  choosing 
an  estate  wisely,  if  he  is  still  sincere  in  his  expressed  desire  to 
become  a  colonist.  Claude  gladly  accepts  the  offer,  for  he 
already  loves  the  country,  and  is  firmly  resolved  upon  building 
for  himself  a  successful  future  in  Africa. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Claude  Gelee,  who  expresses  in 
this  book  so  many  of  Louis  Bertrand's  favorite  ideas,  resembles 
his  creator  in  a  number  of  particulars.  He  is  twenty-nine  years 
of  age,  as  was  Louis  Bertrand  when  he  first  planned  to  write 
La  Cinay  ^  and,  like  the  novelist,  is  a  descendant  of  the  great 
painter  of  the  Mediterranean,  Claude  le  Lorrain;  was  born  near 
Metz,  and  attended  the  Lyc6e  at  Nancy  before  entering  the 
Lycee  Henri  IV.  Michel's  friend  aspires,  if  he  ever  writes,  to 
depict  the  life  of  the  street:  men,  animals,  everything  which  has 
life  and  movement,  and  especially  life  in  action  in  all  its  original 
beauty. 

While  awaiting  the  boat  for  Algiers,  the  two  friends  visit  the 
art  museum  at  Marseilles;  but  Claude  can  scarcely  restrain  his 

^  In  the  preface  to  La  Cina  (p.  VII)  M.  Bertrand  tells  us  that  he  planned 
the  book  in  the  spring  of  1895,  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  visit  to  the  ruins 
of  Tipasa. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     67 

impatience,  and  urges  Michel  to  leave  the  images  of  a  dead  past 
in  order  to  observe  the  Marseilles  which  is  living  in  the  present. 
He  tells  Michel  that  they  must  choose  between  life  and  art,  and 
that  art  must  be  forgotten,  since  it  hides  life  from  them.  As 
the  comrades  are  seated  before  a  cafe,  observing  with  delight 
the  variegated  crowds  in  movement  before  them,  their  imagina- 
tions become  as  it  were  illumined  by  a  vision  of  the  past.  The 
whole  forgotten  poetry  of  the  Mediterranean  rises  before  them, 
with  its  islands  and  the  mirages  of  its  waves,  the  gaiety  of  its 
shores  and  the  delights  of  its  cities,  with  its  temples  and  its 
sacred  ruins,  its  pirates  and  adventurers,  and  the  tumult  of  its 
battles.  They  rejoice  to  recognize  in  the  crowds  passing  before 
them  the  eternal  types  of  the  wanderers  of  the  Latin  sea. 

Later,  when,  at  Tipasa,  the  friends  first  gaze  upon  the  ancient 
vestiges  of  the  Romans,  the  startling  evidence  of  Latin  continuity 
dawns  upon  them,  and  Claude  remarks  that  these  Latin  ancestors 
of  their  race  were  deeply  rooted  here,  and  that  they  had  always 
hovered  about  Africa,  as  about  a  rich  prize.  To  Michel's 
observation  that  the  French  are  not  strangers  in  that  country, 
Claude  adds  that  his  compatriots  are  simply  claiming  an  inheri- 
tance. Both  approve  the  statement  of  the  local  priest,  who  is 
acting  as  their  guide,  that,  as  Catholics,  they  have  glorious 
traditions  to  preserve,  and  that  their  titles  of  possession  to  these 
lands  of  the  Empire  date  back  almost  eighteen  hundred  years. 

Like  Claude,  his  friend  the  archeologist,  Paul  Hartmann, 
expresses  many  of  the  ideas  of  Louis  Bertrand.  Not  only  had 
Hartmann  travelled  over  the  whole  of  Latin  Africa,  which  he 
knew  in  the  most  minute  detail,  but  he  was  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  ancient  texts,  which  he  interpreted  with  the  accuracy  of 
a  Fustel  de  Coulanges.  Yet  the  archeologist's  scientific  enthu- 
siasm was  tempered  by  the  most  positive  logic,  and  the  past 
did  not  mask  the  present  for  him,  nor  did  the  historical  mirage 
cause  him  to  forget  contemporary  realities.  Michel  and  his 
guests  found  the  conversation  of  the  scholar  highly  interesting, 
for  so  profound  was  his  understanding  of  the  continuity  of 
history  that  he  was  able  to  portray  the  antiquities  of  Africa  as 
still  living  in  the  present. 


68  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

Another  guest  at  the  villa  was  Mgr.  Puig,  Archbishop  of 
Algiers,  Hippo  and  Carthage.  The  appearance  of  this  prelate 
was  striking  by  its  very  unexpectedness.  The  violet  shade  of 
his  robe  threw  into  high  relief  the  vermilion  of  his  nose  and 
cheeks.  With  his  reddish  bushy  beard,  he  resembled  a  burly 
wine  grower  of  his  native  Cerdagne  in  the  disguise  of  a  bishop. 

In  the  course  of  a  dinner  at  the  villa,  one  of  the  party  having 
commented  upon  the  picturesque  features  of  the  cosmopolitan 
crowds  of  the  colony,  Paul  Hartmann  warns  the  guests  that 
these  crowds  will  one  day  be  masters  of  the  country.  The 
archeologist  points  out  that  at  all  epochs  of  African  history, 
there  has  been  in  the  country  a  confused  proletariat  composed 
of  all  of  the  Mediterranean  races,  who  are  at  this  time  trying  to 
affirm  themselves  as  a  homogeneous  people.  These  people  are 
completely  Semitized,  and  their  cries  of  "Down  with  the  Jew" 
would  be  absurd,  if  our  knowledge  of  history  did  not  teach  us 
that  the  Jews,  like  the  Africans,  have  never  ceased  devouring 
each  other.  If  the  race,  he  continues,  is  only  physiologically 
speaking,  an  entity,  and  if,  as  he  believes,  climate  and  training 
are  everything,  is  not  the  climate  the  same  as  that  which  pro- 
duced Semitic  Carthage,  and  is  it  not  the  Jew  and  the  Arab, 
in  the  midst  of  whom  they  have  lived,  who  have  fashioned  the 
characters  of  the  African  colonists?  Since  these  Italians  and 
Spaniards  are  on  the  same  level  as  the  Jew  and  the  Arab,  and 
since  their  aspirations  do  not  go  beyond  the  patriarchal  state, 
for  they  are  a  flock  which  needs  a  shepherd,  it  would  be  unwise 
on  the  part  of  the  French  to  give  them  the  vote. 

The  chief  political  issue  of  the  day  in  Algeria  was  anti-Semitism, 
and  Michel  did  not  feel  that  he  could  conscientiously  espouse 
this  cause.  He  realized  that  the  movement  was  regarded  by 
its  leaders  as  affording  a  means  to  obtain  office.  Worse  still, 
the  popular  press  had  convinced  the  non-French  element  of  the 
colony  that  France  herself  was  completely  Semitized,  and  the 
jealousy  of  the  French  felt  by  this  element  caused  them  to  use 
the  movement  as  a  pretext  to  attack  the  masters  of  the  country. 
The  Moslem  gladly  seized  upon  the  occasion  to  confuse  the 
Jew  and  the  conqueror  in  the  same  execration ;  for  these  natives 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     69 

the  shout  "Down  with  the  Jews"  was  the  same  as  crying  "Down 
with  France." 

Besides  these  abstract  considerations,  the  practical  side  of  the 
question  revolted  Michel.  The  most  popular  candidate  for 
the  office  of  deputy  was  a  certain  Carmelo,  a  lawyer  of  Maltese 
origin,  whose  imperfect  knowledge  of  French  had  prevented  his 
admission  to  the  bar.  Carmelo's  election  to  one  of  the  two  seats 
to  the  Chambre  des  Deputes  was  certain,  and  so  popular  was 
he  that  Michel  could  only  have  been  chosen  to  the  other  by  the 
support  of  the  lawy-er,  on  the  basis  of  anti-Semitism. 

Mgr.  Puig  is,  with  Carmelo,  the  outstanding  character  of  the 
book.  This  powerful  prince  of  the  Church  expresses  views  the 
penetrating  and  rather  cynical  realism  of  which  mark  him  as  an 
exceedingly  shrewd  opportunist  politician,  if  not  a  far-seeing 
statesman.  Thus  his  favorite  subject  of  ridicule  is  the  concep- 
tion of  his  predecessor  that  it  is  possible  to  evangelize  the  Arab 
by  prayer,  by  humanity  or  by  similar  prejudices  brought  from 
France.  Mgr.  Puig  would  preach  to  them  by  gun-shots,  and 
with  an  army  he  would  guarantee  to  convert  them  en  masse. 
He  also  ridicules  the  idea  that  the  Spaniards  and  the  Italians 
of  the  colony  can  ever  be  assimilated  by  the  French:  they  may 
become  Africans  or  Algerians,  but  never  Frenchmen.  It  is  this 
new  Latin  people  of  Africa  that  the  Church  must  conquer  and 
retain,  not  the  negro  nor  the  Arab.  The  best  method  to  this 
end  is  for  the  Church  to  be  rich,  to  possess  much  property,  and 
to  supplant  the  Jew  as  banker  to  the  colonist.  The  prelate 
would  unite  the  Latins  of  Africa  into  a  compact  mass,  to  be 
hurled  against  the  Mohammedan,  who  should  be  exterminated 
without  pity,  since  this  is  necessary  for  the  future  safety  of  the 
Latin.  A  common  religious  belief  is  to  be  the  bond  of  union, 
and  the  Archbishop  does  not  particularly  care  whether  this 
belief  is  a  heartfelt  one.  After  the  Mussulman,  the  Latin 
world  has  a  not  less  implacable  enemy  in  the  xA-nglo-Saxon,  who 
is  driving  it  back  everywhere.  Already  the  Latins  of  South 
America,  he  says,  are  turning  towards  their  brothers  in  Europe 
for  help  to  resist  the  invading  Yankee.     If  the  Latin  peoples 


70  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

were  united,  their  task  would  be  easy,  and  there  would  be  a  new 
crusade  embracing  both  hemispheres. 

Claude,  after  his  long  trip  through  the  inland  provinces  of 
Algeria,  feels  that  his  recent  travels  have  changed  him  greatly. 
He  realizes  that  contact  with  realities,  while  roughening  him, 
has  also  fortified  him,  and  armed  him  for  the  struggle  of  life. 
The  few  remains  of  the  vaguely  socialistic  ideas  which  he  had 
brought  from  Paris  had  been  dissipated  by  the  brutal  contact  of 
African  barbarism.  When  Claude  has  made  his  decision  to 
remain  in  Africa,  he  remembers  his  glorious  ancestor,  Claude 
le  Lorrain,  who,  born  in  the  fogs  of  the  North,  had  passed  his 
life  in  Italy  painting  sunrises  and  sunsets.  "I  have  done  as 
he  did,"  thinks  Claude,  "I  have  come  back  to  the  light." 

While  Claude  is  establishing  himself  on  the  farm  of  the  hos- 
pitable Alsatian,  Mgr.  Puig  is  proceeding  to  Carthage,  where  he 
is  to  preside  over  a  provincial  church  council  and  the  celebra- 
tions attending  his  own  elevation  to  the  rank  of  cardinal.  More 
important  still,  he  intended  to  strengthen  his  position  and 
enlarge  his  prestige  in  Tunisia,  where  he  was  planning  vast 
agricultural  and  financial  enterprises.  The  Archbishop  has  no 
sentimental  feeling  for  Carthage,  nor  any  interest  in  its  restora- 
tion. For  this  man  of  action,  the  important  thing  is  to  awaken  to 
a  sense  of  nationality  the  new  Latin  people,  and  to  send  it  to  the 
uncultivated  parts  of  North  Africa,  which  would  thus  be  brought 
under  cultivation.  In  addressing  the  assembled  council  and 
people,  the  prelate  speaks  of  the  ancient  pact  between  France 
and  the  Church.  In  the  re-establishment  of  the  Church  of 
Carthage,  he  says,  is  brilliantly  demonstrated  the  continuity  of 
a  firm  purpose  and  the  victory  of  a  secret  and  patient  will. 
Since  the  time  of  Saint  Louis,  France  and  the  Church  had 
meditated  the  conquest  of  Africa. 

Mgr.  Puig  feels  exalted  as  he  contemplates  these  Latins  of 
Africa,  the  race  of  the  future,  united  for  a  moment  at  least  by 
their  common  faith.  He  pronounces  a  benediction:  ".  .  . — et 
dans  un  geste  hardi  de  conqucte,  la  main  benissante  du  prince 
romain  enveloppa  I'Afrique  et  la  mer."  ' 

^  The  closing  lines  of  La  Cina, 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     71 

Le  Rival  de  don  Juan 

Jean  Puig,  a  young  banker  of  Perpignan,  a  nephew  of  Cardinal 
Puig  of  La  Ct?ja,  and  his  friend  Henri  Mautoucher,  the  painter, 
novelist  and  literary  critic,  are  at  Montpellier  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  the  mistress  of  the  former,  "La  Galliego",  a  beautiful 
Spanish  dancer,  whose  fame  has  spread  over  Europe.  The 
young  men  have  been  friends  since  their  school  days  at  the 
Lyc^e  Henri  IV,  where  the  "Lorrain"  Claude  Gelee,  the  "Lyon- 
nais"  Michel  Botteri,  the  Catalan  Jean  Puig  and  Henri  Mau- 
toucher were  known  as  the  four  inseparable  companions. 

Jean,  his  beautiful  mistress,  her  mother  and  Henri  proceed 
to  Seville,  where  they  expect  to  pass  most  of  the  summer.  Mau- 
toucher falls  in  love  with  La  Galliego,  but  she  remains  faithful  to 
Jean.  How  the  mind  of  Henri  gradually  becomes  unbalanced 
by  the  intensity  and  hopelessness  of  his  passion,  and  how  he 
finally  kills  the  dancer  and  throws  himself  from  the  Giralda  of 
Seville,  shouting,  "Je  suis  don  Juan,"  forms  the  subject  of  this 
skillfully  written  tragedy.  While  the  scene  of  the  novel  does 
not  take  place  in  Africa,  there  are  a  number  of  ideas  expressed 
in  it  which  illustrate  so  clearly  the  African,  Latin  and  Mediterra- 
nean doctrines  of  Louis  Bertrand,  that  brief  mention  of  them 
seems  desirable  here. 

Thus,  the  arrival  at  Montpellier  of  a  delegation  of  students 
from  Barcelona  is  the  occasion  for  an  enthusiastic  popular 
demonstration,  which  the  comrades  observe  with  keen  interest. 
Jean  Puig,  forgetting  his  carefully  acquired  Parisian  impassivity, 
and  remembering  only  his  origin,  cries  with  the  loudest,  "Visca 
Catalunya."  At  this  cry:  "Un  immense  frisson  passa  sur  la 
foule,  une  Amotion  presque  religieuse  oppressa  les  poitrines. 
La  voix  du  sang  monta  dans  les  acclamations  eperdues,  I'image 
oubliee  de  la  grande  Patrie  Latine  illumina  les  ames  les  plus 
obscures,  et,  pendant  une  seconde,  elle  plana,  ressuscitee  par 
I'emotion  de  la  multitude."  Jean,  turning  to  Henri,  com- 
ments upon  the  beauty  of  the  emotion  of  the  people  and  of  their 
''sens  de  la  terre  et  des  origines."  ^ 

Explaining    his    preference    for    Seville,    as    compared    with 

1  Le  Rival  de  don  Jtian,  p.  5. 


72  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

several  other  cities  of  the  Mediterranean,  Jean  says:  "Toutes 
ces  grandes  villes  mediterran^ennes  sont  de  v^ritables  alcoves 
toutes  preparees  pour  I'amour:  Marseille,  Naples,  Barcelone, 
Valence,  Alger,  Seville!  Et  chacune  a  sa  volupte!  Marseille, 
c'est  Tamour  a  la  frangaise  au  milieu  du  mouvement,  des  bruits 
du  port,  quelque  chose  de  brilliant,  de  superficial  et  d'un  peu 
vulgaire;  Naples  et  Valence,  c'est  le  plaisir  k  la  fois  sentimental 
et  sensuel  parmi  les  jardins,  les  fleurs,  la  musique;  Alger,  c'est  la 
luxure  brutale,  toute  la  fureur  du  sang  africain!  Mais  Seville! 
.  .  .  Seville  est  divine!  Une  langeur  passionnee,  je  ne  sais 
quoi  de  tendre  et  de  tragique,  de  suave  et  de  sauvage,  dans  un 
air  de   fete   perp^tuelle!."  ^ 

When  the  city  is  reached,  Henri  begins  to  share  his  friend's 
admiration  for  it.  The  Northerner,  suddenly  thrown  into  the 
midst  of  the  great  joy  of  the  South,  feels  his  whole  being  expand 
among  this  people  which  constantly  affirms  its  faith  in  the  beauty 
of  living.  He  reflects  that  he  is  repeating  the  gesture  of  his 
ancestors,  the  age-old  exodus  of  the  northern  barbarian  who 
comes  down  to  the  joyous  countries  of  the  South  in  search  of 
plunder,  carnage  and  beauty;  he  is  making  again  the  pilgrimage  of 
Goethe,  of  Byron,  of  Shelley,  of  Lamartine,andof  Chateaubriand. 

During  a  visit  which  Michel  Botteri  pays  to  his  old  friends, 
on  his  way  back  to  Algeria  after  a  stay  in  France,  he  expresses 
his  bitterness  against  the  inertia  and  the  hollow  pride  of  the 
French  whom  he  has  recently  seen.  To  understand  fully  the 
extent  of  the  decay  of  French  character,  Michel  informs  his 
friends,  one  must  have  just  come  from  a  young  and  vigorous 
country  like  Algeria,  where  the  human  plant  flowers  with  full 
strength  and  complete  liberty.  Merely  from  his  self-confident 
air,  one  recognizes  in  the  Algerian  the  male  and  the  conqueror. 
Jean  points  out  that  Michel  is  judging  France  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  people  of  the  central  part  of  the  country,  but  that  the 
borderers,  the  Lorraine  and  the  Catalan  peoples,  these  laborious, 
fecund  and  sensual  races,  cannot  be  shaken  nor  uprooted. 
Subjected  to  the  constant  pressure  of  the  foreigner,  they  have 
acquired   a    tremendous    power   of   elastic    resistance.     Michel 

*  Ibid,  p.  41. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     73 

admits  that  the  only  way  to  regenerate  races  is  to  place  them  in 
opposition  with  each  other,  and  he  remarks  that  the  Frenchman 
is  always  toughened  by  contact  with  the  Arab,  the  Italian  and 
the  Spaniard. 

Jean  is  of  the  same  opinion,  and  believes  that  it  is  in  North 
Africa  that  France  is  destined  to  renew  her  youth,  and  that  she 
will  be  saved  by  the  neo-Latin  race  growing  up  there.  As  for 
the  moribund  generation  of  the  Defeat,  typified,  he  says,  by 
Michel  and  Henri,  it  is  dying,  and  to  the  great  advantage  of 
France.  This  generation  will  be  replaced  by  a  new  one  now 
coming  into  manhood:  a  young  bourgeoisie  avid  of  adventures 
and  plunder,  impatient  for  action  and  weary  of  useless  specula- 
tion. This  bourgeoisie,  of  which  Jean  proudly  calls  himself  a 
member,  will  save  itself  and  France  by  combating  the  "canaille" 
within  and  the  enemy  without.  By  "canaille"  Jean  says  that 
he  means  the  idle  and  the  cowardly,  whether  of  the  proletariat 
or  of  the  aristocracy. 

To  Henri's  caustic  objection  that  he  is  becoming  annoying 
with  his  display  of  deliberate  brutality,  Jean  replies  sharply 
that  he  is  proud  of  this  brutality,  which  is  a  mark  of  real  dis- 
tinction in  the  midst  of  the  general  softening  and  relaxing  of 
characters.  He  maintains  that  all  civilization  rests  on  a  broad 
base  of  barbarism.  It  is  because  the  French  have  lost  the 
roughness  of  their  grandfathers  that  they  are  no  longer  capable 
of  effective  political  action,  of  art,  or  of  literature.  France 
needs  men  who  can  suffer  and  strike  hard.  She  must  carefully 
conserve  the  brutality  of  the  masses,  as  a  requisite  for  all  of  the 
strength,  delicacy  and  generosity  of  the  upper  classes.  Through 
all  our  roots,  he  concludes,  we  must  saturate  ourselves  in  bar- 
barism. 1 

^  Le  Rival  de  don  Juan,  p.  293.  When  Mautoucher  cries  in  answer:  "  C'est 
monstrueux!  quoi  que  nous  fassions,  I'humanite  marche  a  plus  de 
lumiere!.  .  .",  M.  Bertrand  declares  that  he  revealed  thus  "sa  tare  ple- 
beienne."  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  generation  of  the  Defeat,  which 
Louis  Bertrand  here  attacks  in  the  person  of  Mautoucher,  professes  at  times 
a  sort  of  humanitarian  optimism,  a  belief  in  a  future  progress.  Compare: 
"Lentement,  mais  toujours,  i'humanite  realise  les  rives  des  sages."  Anatole 
France,  Vers  les  Temps  meilleurs,  Vol.  II,  p.  57. 


74  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

Pepete  et  Balthasar 

P^pete  Ferrer,  a  young  sardine  fisherman  of  Spanish  origin, 
who  lives  at  Algiers,  is  popular  among  his  companions  for  his 
gifts  as  a  dancer,  a  singer  and  a  clown.  He  has  also  a  con- 
siderable reputation  for  success  as  a  Don  Juan,  a  reputation 
which  is  so  well  deserved  that  he  is  supported  by  his  conquests 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  time  during  which  the  author  follows 
his  career.  A  wound  which  the  young  man  receives  at  the 
hands  of  a  jealous  mistress  forces  him  to  remain  in  bed  for  many 
weeks.  During  this  time  he  is  tenderly  nursed  by  Ang^le 
Micoud,  a  young  French  girl,  the  daughter  of  a  neighbor.  Pepete 
falls  in  love  with  her,  and  the  two  marry. 

Except  as  Pepete  may  be  considered  as  a  symbol  of  the 
fecundity  of  the  Neo- African,  and  the  stage-coach  driver  Bal- 
thasar as  typifying  the  love  of  display  of  the  proletarian  of  the 
Mediterranean  countries,  the  book  has  little  direct  importance 
as  an  illustration  of  the  African  and  Latin  theories  of  its  author. 
One  chapter,  however,  that  which  describes  a  meeting  of  work- 
men at  Labor  Headquarters  at  Algiers,  should  be  summarized  in 
some  detail. 

At  one  time  Pepete,  after  a  long  period  of  idleness  and  dissipa* 
tion,  resolves  to  seek  out  a  former  employer  and  to  ask  for  a 
position.  The  young  man  finds  him  attempting  to  organize 
the  long  established  Spanish  fishermen  against  their  recently 
arrived  Calabrian  and  Neapolitan  competitors,  whose  standards 
of  living  were  so  low  as  to  enable  them  to  undersell  the  Algerian, 
accustomed  as  he  was  to  a  larger  economic  life.  Attempts  at 
organization  by  Pepete  and  his  employer  are  nearly  hopeless,  so 
divided  are  the  fishermen  by  the  fierceness  of  their  competition, 
and  by  the  diversity  of  their  religions  and  origins.  Knowing 
these  men  as  he  did.  P6pete's  employer  foresees  that  their  jeal- 
ousies, cowardice  and  hypocritical  compromises  are  almost 
insurmountable  obstacles  to  any  sort  of  union.  He  is  in  despair 
for  arguments  with  which  to  appeal  to  these  poor  brains,  obsessed 
by  prejudices,  narrowed  by  the  most  bitter  egotism,  and  floating 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     7$ 

in  a  fog  of  images  so  confused  that  nothing  is  formulated  in 
them  except  such  crude  notions  as  grow  from  daily  toil. 

Pepete,  though  unstable  and  easily  discouraged,  is  capable  of 
enthusiasm  for  a  cause,  and  throws  himself  with  ardor  into  the 
task  of  organization.  He  succeeds  in  persuading  a  number  of 
his  fellows  to  attend  a  meeting  at  labor  headquarters,  to  listen 
to  an  address  by  the  secretary  of  the  federated  unions  of  Algiers. 
Delegations  of  all  the  manual  trades  of  the  city  are  present, 
picturesque  in  their  toil-worn  and  diverse  costumes.  Among 
these  delegations  only  those  representing  the  skilled  trades, 
largeh'  Frenchmen,  have  any  notion  of  organization  or  of  solidar- 
ity. The  Italians  and  Spaniards  came  for  the  most  varying 
reasons,  some  in  the  desperation  caused  by  an  unemployment 
crisis,  others  out  of  curiosity,  and  Balthasar  to  display  a  splendid 
new  cap. 

The  speaker,  who  had  formerly  been  a  lay  teacher  in  a  Catholic 
school,  then  a  cafe  waiter,  had  become  imbued  with  the  most 
radical  socialistic  ideas.  His  address  begins  with  a  few  socialistic 
commonplaces  which  soon  put  his  auditors  to  sleep.  Enraged 
by  this  lack  of  interest,  the  orator  berates  his  hearers  for  their 
lack  of  class-consciousness.  The  tirade  becomes  so  abusive  that 
it  is  approved  only  by  the  skilled  French  artisans,  and  by  them 
largely  because  it  is  directed  against  the  Spaniards  and  the 
Italians.  These  latter,  who  had  brought  into  fertility  vast 
plains,  and  had  driven  their  carts  through  the  devouring  desert, 
risking  their  lives  daily  from  hunger,  thirst,  the  burning  sun  and 
the  treachery  of  the  nomad;  who,  reduced  to  passive  obedience 
by  the  fierceness  of  competition,  slaved  for  the  price  of  a  loaf  of 
bread,  allow  themselves  to  be  treated  as  mere  brutes  by  this 
pedant  who  knew  nothing  of  their  lives.  To  these  ardent  and 
sensual  Latins,  impetuous  in  action  as  in  pleasure,  this  "pion  de 
la  Sociale"  addresses  the  commonplaces  of  university  and 
Protestant  morality,  good  perhaps,  thinks  the  novelist,  for  men 
of  Dantzig,  but  meaningless  for  Africans.  Wearied  and  irritated, 
the  fishermen  can  endure  the  flow  of  words  no  longer  and,  led  by 
Pepete  and  Balthasar,  file  out  of  the  hall. 

Pepete,  as  Louis  Bertrand  tells  us  in  the  introduction  to  the 


76  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

new  edition  of  the  book, '  is  a  symbol  of  healthy  fecundity.  The 
fisherman  is  vastly  superior  in  social  value  to  the  French  workman 
of  today,  ruined  by  alcohol  and  tuberculosis,  and  reduced  to  the 
level  of  a  "bete  de  troupeau"  by  the  tyranny  of  the  labor  union. 
Pep^te  is  an  individualist  who,  sensing  a  trap,  shakes  the  dust 
of  unionism  from  his  feet.  None  of  the  specious  doctrines  of 
the  radical  can  win  him  from  his  superb  love  of  liberty,  of  which, 
in  a  world  enslaved  by  socialist  tyranny,  he  will  be  one  of  the 
last  defenders. 

La  Concession  de  Madame  Petitgand 

Jacques  Roustan  is  a  carter  of  Provengal  origin,  who  is  known 
throughout  the  south  of  Algeria  by  the  name  of  P^lissier,  a 
sobriquet  which  he  had  received  because  his  father  had  served 
under  Marshal  Pelissier  during  the  Second  Empire.  The  carter, 
by  using  the  greater  part  of  his  modest  savings,  is  able  to  lease 
part  of  an  estate  known  as  "La  Concession  de  Madame  Petit- 
gand", situated  near  the  town  of  Cheraia.  Colonists  who  had 
heretofore  attempted  to  develop  this  property  had  either  been 
driven  away  by  thefts  and  the  destruction  of  their  crops,  or 
had  been  assassinated.  These  crimes  were  by  common  report 
attributed  to  the  neighboring  Arabs.  Pelissier  felt  himself  to 
be  on  good  terms  with  most  of  these  natives,  however,  and 
counted,  besides,  upon  the  support  of  the  powerful  Mayor  of 
Cheraia,  Philippe  Nonded6o,  who  was  a  relative  by  marriage. 
It  soon  becomes  evident  that  some  secret  foe  is  attempting  to 
drive  him  from  the  property,  for  all  of  his  farm  animals  are 
either  killed  or  stolen,  and  his  crops  are  burned.  The  unfortu- 
nate colonist  learns  that  the  Mayor  had  long  coveted  the  prop- 
erty, and  wished  to  keep  it  unoccupied  so  that  he  might  eventually 
buy  it  at  a  low  price.  Other  considerations  confirm  in  the  mind 
of  Pelissier  the  suspicion  that  Philippe  is  the  cause  of  his  mis- 
fortunes, which  finally  result  in  his  complete  ruin.  Driven  to 
desperation  by  the  thought  of  the  injustice  and  the  cruelty  of 
which  he  has  been  the  undeserving  victim,  Pelissier  shoots  his 

'  The  preface  to  the  new  edition  was  signed  at  Paris  on  June  15,  1920. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OP  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     77 

persecutor,  killing  him  instantly.  The  story  ends  with  this 
act  of  justice,  as  the  colonist  firmly  believes  it  to  be. 

P^lissier  is  described  as  having  the  classic  Roman  face  so 
common  among  the  Provencal  peasants  of  the  Var  and  the 
Bouches-du-Rhone,  with  the  low  forehead,  the  straight  and 
short  nose,  the  rounded  chin,  the  square  and  protruding  jaws 
and  the  tiny  black  mustache.  His  nature  also  bore  the  stamp 
of  his  Provencal  origin,  for  he  was  a  voluble  and  cheerful  talker, 
with  a  joke  and  a  laugh  for  everyone.  African  that  he  was,  half 
peasant  and  half  adventurer,  Pelissier  made  it  a  habit  and  a 
principle  never  to  tell  the  truth.  He  considered  it  his  duty  to  lie 
when  his  interests  were  involved,  and  when  an  issue  was  un- 
important he  prevaricated  from  a  sort  of  artistic  need  to  be 
consistent.  At  an  early  age  he  had  been  drawn  instinctively  to 
the  mysterious  South  by  its  vague  but  irresistible  charm,  and 
had  allowed  himself  to  drift  through  life,  like  the  nomad,  at- 
tracted by  the  rough,  free  existence  of  the  desert.  When  the 
story  opens,  Pelissier,  at  the  age  of  forty-one,  had  realized  that 
it  was  time  to  make  a  place  for  himself  and  to  have  a  home  of 
his  own. 

Philippe  Nond^deo,  as  a  type  of  successful  African,  merits 
description  here.  He  is  a  colossus  in  size  and  strength,  whose 
vast  physical  proportions  intensify  the  effect  produced  by  his 
brutal  and  arrogant  air.  His  intelligent  glance  tempers  some- 
what the  impression  caused  by  the  massiveness  of  his  herculean 
frame.  Of  Spanish  origin,  he  had  displayed  qualities  of  endur- 
ance and  energy  during  the  early  years  when  he  was  getting  his 
start  in  life.  Beginning  with  a  small  concession,  he  had  gradually 
extended  his  holdings  by  these  qualities  and  by  the  exercise  of 
astute  trickery  and  the  cynical  use  of  force.  Every  one  fears 
him,  for  he  suffers  no  rival,  and  crushes  without  pity  any  at- 
tempt at  independence  on  the  part  of  the  Arabs  or  the  colonists 
about  him.  The  former  especially  were  in  abject  terror  of 
the  Mayor,  for,  controlling  the  legal  machinery  of  the  commune, 
he  bent  the  unfortunate  natives  to  his  will  by  fines  and  imprison- 
ment. The  Bedouins  worked  for  Nondedeo  for  very  small  pay, 
or,  as  it  was  rumored,  often  for  nothing. 


78  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

Pelissier  naturally  hesitates  to  antagonize  such  a  redoubtable 
person,  by  taking  part  against  him  in  any  of  the  racial  and 
political  quarrels  by  which  the  commune  was  divided.  When 
reproached  by  Cosquin,  the  most  important  French  farmer  of 
the  neighborhood,  for  his  subserviency  to  the  Mayor,  Pelissier 
answers  that  the  latter  is  a  relative.  Cosquin  replies:" Oh!  des 
parents  comme  celui-la!  ...  II  n'y  a  pas  de  quoi  etre  fier!  .  .  . 
Mais  ce  qui  me  tourne  les  sangs,  c'est  que  toi,  un  Frangais, 
tu  t'acoquines  avec  cette  racaille  d'Espagnols  et  de  Calabrais, 
qui  deshonorent  le  pays!"^ 

This  simple  story,  as  M.  Bertrand  tells  us  in  his  preface  to 
the  book,  is  only  one  episode  among  a  thousand  dealing  with 
the  incessant  struggle  which  the  Algerian  colonist  has  had  to 
sustain  against  the  hostility  of  nature  and  of  man.  The  military 
conquest  of  North  Africa — difficult  though  it  was — did  not  cost 
as  much  toil  and  suffering  as  the  conquest  of  the  soil  by  the 
plow.  In  France  few  know  that  the  beautiful  estates  and  the 
immense  vineyards  which  today  cover  the  colony  were  literally 
carved  out  morsel  by  morsel  from  the  invading  brushwood,  the 
marshes  and  the  stony  and  arid  plains.  A  multitude  of  obscure 
lives  wore  themselves  out  at  this  labor.  Many  naive  hopes  were 
thwarted;  many  nameless  efforts  and  sacrifices  received  no 
recompense.  A  whole  people  of  hardy  pioneers:  Frenchmen, 
Spaniards,  Italians,  Maltese  exhausted  their  strength  and 
their  modest  savings  in  this  great  task.  ^ 

*  La  Concession  de  Madame  Petitgand^  p.  135. 
'  Ihid.,  Avant-propos,  p.  5. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     79 


VI 

The  Influence  of  Flaubert  upon  the  Style  AxVd  the 
Literary  Methods  of  Louis  Bertrand 

In  considering  the  influence  of  Flaubert,  and  more  particulatly 
of  Salammho,  upon  the  African  novels  of  Louis  Bertrand,  it 
seems  desirable  to  examine  first  certain  phases  of  the  work  of  the 
disciple  which  lend  themselves  most  readily  to  comparison  with 
ideas  which  M.  Bertrand  himself  has  extolled  in  the  master,  as 
summarized  in  Chapter  III  of  this  paper.  Salammbo,  says  the 
author  of  Le  Sang  des  races,  first  revealed  to  him  the  attraction 
of  the  mysterious  South.  As  he  himself  is  not  more  specific, 
perhaps  because  the  charm  exercised  by  the  unknown  is  some- 
what difficult  to  define,  w^e  may  turn  to  a  distinguished  French 
critic  for  a  possible  explanation.  Emile  Faguet  believes  that 
Flaubert  avails  himself  of  the  attraction  of  the  mysterious  as  a 
method  of  awakening  interest,  and  that  he  invented  the  Zaimph, 
the  sacred  veil  of  the  Goddess  Tanit,  with  this  effect  in  view. » 
Louis  Bertrand  frequently  depicts  his  heroes  as  feeling  the  lure 
of  the  unknown,  which  he  typifies  by  the  mirages  of  the  deserts 
of  the  South  of  Algeria,  to  which  he  so  frequently  alludes. 

M.  Bertrand  has,  again,  told  us  how  the  moving  and  colorful 
crowds  so  vividly  depicted  in  Salammbo  enabled  him  to  under- 
stand and  to  visualize  the  African  of  today.  -  The  favorite 
method  of  the  author  of  the  Cycle  africain  of  painting  his  chosen 
races  is  to  describe  them  when  they  are  assembled  in  crowds. 
Such  descriptions  are  never  inserted  merely  for  their  own  sake, 
but  always  produce  an  effect  upon  one  of  the  characters  of  the 
story,  and  in  this  way  contribute  to  advance  the  development 
of  the  action.  A  comparison  between  a  passage  of  Salammbo 
and  one  from  Le  Sang  des  races  will  illustrate  this  point  which 
their  authors  have  in  common,  as  well  as  several  other  points  of 

^  Emile  Faguet,  Flaubert,  p.  50. 
2  Pages  33  to  36  of  this  paper. 


80  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

similarity,  which  will  be  treated  in  the  pages  immediately 
following.  The  scene  selected  from  Salammbo  is  the  banquet  of 
the  mercenaries  in  the  garden  of  the  palace  of  Hamilcar.  "... 
le  soleil  se  couchait,  et  le  parfum  des  citronniers  rendait  encore 
plus  lourde  I'exhalaison  de  cette  foule  en  sueur. 

**I1  y  avait  la  des  hommes  de  toutes  les  nations,  des  Ligures, 
des  Lusitaniens,  des  Baleares,  des  Negres  et  des  fugitifs  de 
Rome.  On  entendait,  a  cote  du  lourd  patois  dorien,  retentir 
les  syllabes  celtiques  bruissantes  comme  des  chars  de  bataille, 
et  les  terminaisons  ioniennes  se  heurtaient  aux  consonnes  du 
d6sert,  ^pres  comme  des  cris  de  chacal.  Le  Grec  se  recon- 
naissait  a  sa  taille  mince,  I'Egyptien  a  ses  epaules  remontees, 
le  Cantabre  a  ses  larges  mollets.  Des  Cariens  balangaient 
orgueilleusement  les  plumes  de  leurs  casques,  des  archers  de 
Cappadoce  s'etaient  peint  de  larges  fleurs  sur  le  corps,  et  quelques 
Lydiens  portant  des  robes  de  femme  dinaient  en  pantoufles  et 
avec  des  boucles  d'oreilles.  D'autres,  qui  s'etaient  par  pompe 
barbouilles  de  vermilion,  ressemblaiet  a  des  statues  de  corail. 

**I1  ss'allongeaient  sur  des  coussins,  ils  mangeaient  accroupis 
autour  de  grands  plateaux,  ou  bien,  couches  sur  le  ventre,  ils 
tiraient  a  eux  des  morceaux  de  viande,  et  se  rassasaient  appuyes 
sur  les  coudes,  dans  la  pose  pacifique  des  lions  lorsqu'ilsdepecent 
leur  proie  ....  La  joie  de  pouvoir  enfin  se  gorger  a  I'aise 
dilatait  tous  les  yeux;  ga  et  1^  les  chansons  commengaient.  .  .  . 
La  surprise  des  nourritures  nouvelles  excitait  la  cupidit6  des 
estomacs.  .  .  Les  soldats.  .  .  avalaient  a  pleine  gorge  tous  les 
vins  grecs  qui  sont  dans  les  outres,  les  vins  de  Campanie  en- 
fermes  dans  des  amphores,  les  vins  de  Cantabres  que  Ton  apporte 
dans  les  tonneaux,  et  les  vins  de  jujubier,  de  cinnamone  et  de 
lotus  ...  La  fumee  des  viandes  montait  dans  les  feuillages 
avec  la  vapeur  des  haleines.  .  .  . 

"A  measure  qu'augmentait  leur  ivresse,  ils  se  rappelaient  de 
plus  en  plus  I'injustice  de  Carthage."  ^  The  detailed  enumera- 
tion of  the  dishes  served  to  the  mercenaries  is  omitted  from  the 

1  Gustave  Flaubert,  Salammbo,  pp.  3,  4  and  5.  All  citations  from  Flaubert 
in  this  chapter  are  from  the  Conart  edition  of  his  works. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     8t 

above  citation,  since  this  enumeration  adds  little  to  the  action, 
which  is  motivated  largely  by  the  drunkenness  of  the  soldiers. 
This  intoxication  leads  them  into  an  orgy  of  destruction,  in- 
creases their  feeling  of  grievance  against  Carthage,  and  also 
causes  them  to  free  Ilamilcar's  slaves,  among  whom  is  the 
important  character  of  Spendius. 

The  following  passage  from  Le  Sang  des  races  offers  some 
striking  parallels  with  that  from  Sala-inmho.  One  night  as 
Ramon  enters  a  tavern  near  his  home:  "Des  mots  de  toutes  les 
langues  mediterraneennes  surgissaient  parfois  dans  le  tumulte, 
puis  la  rumeur  grandissante  couvrait  tout,  et  un  roulement 
continu  grondait  comme  sur  les  galets  des  plages. 

"  *  II  y  avait  la  des  hommes  de  toutes  les  nations',  des  terrassiers 
piemontais,  les  plus  bruyants  de  tous,  avec  leurs  faces  roses  de 
Gaulois  aux  longues  moustaches  blondes  et  leurs  yeux  bleus. 
Par-ci  par-la,  eclataient  les  tailloles  multicolores  des  petits 
charretiers  de  la  Camargue  et  de  la  val^e  du  Rh6ne,  qui  gesticu- 
laient  entre  les  larges  epaules  des  Piemontais.  .  .  .  Tous  se 
comprenaient,  s'excitaient,  s'enivraient  de  leurs  propos,  que 
les  Piemontais  martelaient  de  rudes  accents  toniques.  Le 
vin  coulait  dans  les  verres,  incendiait  les  visages  et  dilatait  les 
yeux. 

".  .  .  .  Pres  des  Espagnols,  il  y  avait  des  tables  entieres  de 
Maltais,  de  Napolitains,  de  Mahonnais,  tous  charretiers  ou 
magons,  tres  a  I'aise  et  parlant  haut  comme  des  gens  qui  sont 
chez  eux.  ...  Or  tous  ces  hommes  se  repassaient  des  nourri- 
tures  avec  une  sorte  de  fureur  qui  etait  belle  a  voir.  lis  rom- 
paient  le  jeOne  des  ancetres,  ils  disaient  adieu  h.  la  frugalite  et 
k  la  misere  des  pays  arides,  ils  s'epanouissaient  a  Tabondance 
et  a  la  richesse  venues  du  Nord  ...  La  fumee  des  cigarettes 
commengait  a  noyer  la  lueur  des  lampes  a  petrole  pendues  aux 
solives.  Des  guitares  decrochees  des  nurs  pergaient  la  rumeur 
des  voix;  et,  de  toute  cette  foule  montait  une  large  odeur  envelop- 
pante,  ou  se  fondaient  les  emanations  des  lieux  ou  ils  vivaient. 
La  senteur  des  mulcts  et  des  fourrages,  celle  des  pl^tres  neufs 
et  des  poussieres  apres  des  batisses,  la  fraicheur  saline  des 
carrieres,  ou  filtrent  des  sources,  envahissait  la  salle. 


S2  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

"Ram6n  s'enthousiasmait.  ...» 

The  whole  scene  intensifies  in  Ramon  a  desire  to  follow  the 
free  life  of  the  carter,  a  desire  which  is  also  to  be  the  "faculte 
maitresse"  of  his  son  Rafael.  The  exhilaration  engendered  in 
Ram6n  by  feasting,  by  drinking  and  by  the  companiojiship  of 
his  fellows  also  hastens  his  courtship  of  Rosa,  and  in  this  way 
advances  the  action  of  the  novel.  ^ 

The  direct  borrowing  of  the  line  from  Salammbo  is  of  great 
significance,  for  this  sentence  strikes  the  key-note  of  all  of  the 
African  novels  of  Louis  Bertrand:  namely,  the  depiction  of  the 
mingling  of  the  Mediterranean  peoples  upon  the  soil  of  Africa. 
In  both  editions  of  Le  Sang  des  races  ^  the  line  is  enclosed  in 
quotation  marks  and  is  supported  by  the  footnote,  "G.  Flaubert, 
Salammbo,  I,"  thus  indicating  to  the  general  public,  to  whom 
Louis  Bertrand  was  unknown  in  1899,  his  debt  to  Flaubert. 
The  one  other  direct  reference  to  Salammho  which  appears  in  the 
first  novel  of  Louis  Bertrand  is  less  happy,  in  that  he  appears  to 
have  created  an  incident  for  the  express  purpose  of  mentioning 
Flaubert's  work.  Rafael  calls  at  the  dressmaking  establishment 
in  which  his  fiancee  is  an  apprentice,  and  is  shown  the  zaimph 
which  is  being  made  for  an  actress  who  is  to  play  the  role  of 
Salammbo  at  a  local  theater. "  In  La  Cina  its  author  speaks 
of  "le  souffle  devorateur  du  vieux  Moloch  s6mitique";  clearly 
a  reference  to  the  "Moloch  le  devorateur"  of  Salammbo.''     In 

»  Le  Sang  des  races,  pp.  21,  22,  23  and  24. 

2  The  passage  supports  the  opinion  of  Paul  Adam,  who  finds  that  Louis 
Bertrand  imparts  more  life,  reality  and  splendor  to  an  idea  in  expressing  it 
by  masses  of  men  rather  than  by  one  person.  Paul  Adam,  Le  Saint  Augustin 
de  M.  Louis  Bertrand;  published  posthumously  in  La  Minerve  frangaise, 
April  15,  1920. 

^  The  second  or  1920  edition  of  Le  Sang  des  races  differs  in  no  important 
detail  from  the  first  or  1899  edition,  except  that  the  former  has  a  preface  in 
which  are  summarized  many  of  the  more  important  doctrines  and  theories  of 
Louis  Bertrand,  most  of  which  are  given  in  Chapter  IV  of  this  paper. 

*  Le  Sang  des  races,  p.  302. 

<*  Salammbo,  p.  332.  Arthur  Hamilton,  in  Sources  of  the  Religious  Element 
in  Flaubert's  Salammbo  (Johns  Hopkins  Press,  1917),  p.  41,  expresses  the 
opinion  that  Flaubert  revived  the  term  "le  devorateur"  which  had  been 
obsolete  since  the  18th  century. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCECNE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     83 

Le  Rival  de  don  Juan  La  Galliego  plans  for  the  coming  season  a 
dance  which  is  to  be  like  that  of  the  priestesses  of  Tanit,  as 
practiced  in  Africa  "au  temps  de  Salammbo."  »  Mautoucher, 
the  literary  critic  who  appears  in  the  same  novel,  mentions 
Flaubert  twice,  though  not  in  connection  with  Africa.  * 

The  opening  line  of  each  of  the  two  authors  shows  that  both 
evoke  an  atmosphere  in  somewhat  the  same  manner.  Flaubert's 
particularly  acute  feeling  for  odors  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
the  first  sense  impression  which  he  notes  in  depicting  the  mer- 
cenaries is  the  odor  of  their  perspiring  bodies.  On  the  other 
hand  Louis  Bertrand,  while  he  also  shows  keen  perception  for 
odors,  does  not  mention  the  impression  which  they  produce 
until  after  he  has  described  the  scene  presented  to  the  eye  of  the 
observer.  The  contrast  between  the  two  writers  in  the  matter 
of  priority  of  sense  perceptions  is  the  more  striking  if  we  remem- 
ber that  the  mercenaries  are  in  an  open  garden,  where  the  odor 
from  their  bodies  would  be  less  immediately  noticeable  than  had 
they  been  crowded  into  a  closed  room,  as  were  the  Algerian 
workmen.  In  the  passage  from  Le  Sang  des  races,  it  appears 
natural  that  one  who,  like  Ramon,  had  been  walking  in  a  quiet 
street,  and  who  suddenly  opened  the  door  of  a  small  room  filled 
with  men  who  were  talking  loudly,  would  naturally  be  almost 
at  once  strongly  impressed  by  the  confused  sounds  which  greeted 
him. 

After  having  established  the  atmosphere  or  general  effect  of 
the  scene  which  he  is  to  describe,  each  author  proceeds  to  the 
elaboration  of  the  "characteristic  detail".  In  this,  again, 
M.  Bertrand  shows  that  he  receives  sense  impressions  in  a 
different  sequence  than  does  Flaubert.  The  spectator  of  the 
scene  in  the  tavern  would  naturally  glance  about  and  observe 
the  general  characteristics  of  those  most  immediately  within 
the  range  of  his  vision,  before  his  attention  was  attracted  by 
specific  words  which  were  being  uttered.  In  Salammho  the 
enumeration  of  the  men  "de  toutes  les  nations"  rather  spoils  the 

^  Le  Rival  de  don  Juan,  p.  197. 
» Ibid,  pp.  12,  290. 


14  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

effect  which  Flaubert  probably  intended  to  produce,  since  the 
sun  was  setting  and  the  onlooker  would  hardly  at  once  have 
realized  that  the  figures  before  his  eyes  were  those  of  Ligurians, 
Lusitanians,  etc.  It  should  be  noted  that  characteristic  details 
of  the  appearance  of  the  mercenaries  are  not  given  until  after 
the  effect  produced  by  their  dialects  has  been  noted.  ^ 

The  passage  from  Salann^ibo  brings  out  in  a  striking  manner 
Flaubert's  sense  of  color,  odors  and  contrast,  which  characterize 
him,  in  Faguet's  opinion,  2  while  that  from  Le  Sang  des  races 
illustrates  the  insistence  of  its  author  upon  odors  and  contrast, 
and  upon  colors  only  to  a  slightly  lesser  extent.  The  "terras- 
siers  piemontais  .  .  .  avec  leurs  faces  roses  de  Gaulois  aux 
longues  moustaches  blondes  et  leurs  yeux  bleus,"  and  the 
"tailloles  multicolores, "  seen  through  the  smoky  air  of  the 
tavern,  evoke  the  image  which  the  author  wishes  to  paint  as 
vividly  as  does  the  picture  of  the  mercenaries  "qui  s'etaient 
par  pompe  barbouilles  de  vermilion,"  and  thus  " ressemblaient 
a  des  statues  de  corail."  The  portrayal  of  the  satisfaction  of 
hunger  is  executed  with  mastery  in  both  passages,  but  the 
phrase  of  Louis  Bertrand,  "une  sorte  de  fureur  qui  etait  belle 
a  voir"  and  the  sentence  following,  lend  a  touch  of  animation 
and  vivid  gaiety  to  his  description  which  is  lacking  in  the  quota- 
tion from  Salaninibo. 

While  Louis  Bertrand  has,  as  a  Belgian  critic  has  pointed 
out,  the  clear  lines  and  the  color  of  Flaubert,  ^  he  imparts,  in 
my  opinion,  an  intensity  and  a  vigor  to  his  descriptions  which 
those  of  the  master  do  not  possess,  to  the  same  degree  at  least. 
Jules  Bertaut  seems  to  have  grasped  the  dominating  trait  of 
the  style  of  Louis  Bertrand,  when  he  says  that  the  author  of 
the  Cycle  africain  is  fascinated  by  everything  intense  and  gran- 
diose; that  he  does  things  on  a  vast  scale,  and  that  he  is  a  painter 

^  Sainte-Beuve,  in  Salamtnbo,  Noveaux  Lundis,  Vol.  IV,  p.  68,  criticized 
Flaubert  rather  sharply  for  a  tendency  to  describe  in  a  scene  things  which  a 
spectator  of  it  could  not  be  expected  to  see. 

^  Emile  Faguet,  opus  cit.,  p.  44. 

3  Canon  Halflants,  locus  cit. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     85 

of  frescoes  and  a  writer  of  imposing  epics,  working  on  vast 
masses,  and  careless  of  details.  *  Are  we  not  justified  in  believing 
that  M.  Bertaut,  eager  to  establish  his  main  point,  that  of  the 
grandiose  character  of  M.  Bertrand's  work,  has  yielded  to  a 
desire  to  be  epigrammatic,  and  thus  to  set  off  more  strikingly 
this  outstanding  characteristic  of  the  novelist  by  the  statement 
that  he  is  "careless  of  detail"?  Again  we  may  turn  to  the 
scene  in  the  tavern  for  an  illustration  of  this  point.  The  picture 
of  the  Neo-Africans  who  "s'epanouissaient  k  I'abondance  et  k 
la  richesse  venues  du  Nord"  is  certainly  "intense"  and  "epic", 
but  the  mention  of  the  cigarettes  and  the  guitars  rather  relieves 
the  tension  and  gives  an  air  of  homely  reality  to  the  scene  by  a 
skillfully  introduced  touch  of  detail.  The  introduction  of  such 
simple  but  effective  touches  is  characteristic  of  the  "frescoes" 
which  abound  in  the  novels  of  Louis  Bertrand. 

Flaubert,  of  course,  was  particularly  noted  for  the  care  which 
he  devoted  to  questions  of  detail,  as  exemplified  by  his  passionate 
search  for  the  "mot  juste",  examples  of  which  may  be  found 
on  nearly  every  one  of  his  pages,  thinks  a  careful  student  of 
his  works.  ^  The  passage  of  Salammho  here  cited  contains 
several  of  these  laboriously  elaborated  expressions,  of  which  the 
most  striking  are  naturally  those  in  which  words  are  employed 
in  an  unusual  sense  or  connection,  as  for  example:  "les  syllabes 
celtiques  bruissantes  comme  des  chars  de  bataille,"  "consonnes 
du  desert,  apres  comme  des  cris  de  chacal"  and  "La  surprise 
des  nourritures  nouvelles  excitait  la  cupidite  des  estomacs." 
Louis  Bertrand  does  not,  either  here  or  elsewhere,  elaborate  his 
details  to  the  same  degree;  his  "mot  juste"  is  seldom  more 
than  a  single  word,  or  at  most  two  or  three.  He  shows  less 
tendency  than  Flaubert  to  use  words  in  a  rare  or  new  sense,  and 
is  entirely  devoid  of  the  trace  of  "preciosite"  noticeable  in  the 

^  Jules  Bertaut,  Les  Romanciers  du  Nouveau  Sihle,  pp.  116,  117. 

2  Agnes  Rutherford  Riddell,  Flaubert  and  Maupassant:  a  Literary  Relation- 
ship, The  University  of  Chicago  Press,  1920,  p.  29.  This  writer  gives  a  number 
of  examples  of  the  use  of  the  "mot  juste"  by  Flaubert  on  pages  30  and  31  of 
her  paper. 


86  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

last  mentioned  sentence  from  Salammbo.  In  the  quotation 
from  Le  Sang  des  races  the  verbs  "surgissaient",  "grondait" 
and  "martelaient"  are  impressive  rather  by  their  inherent  force 
and  their  eminent  fitness  for  the  function  which  they  are  to  fill, 
than  by  any  effect  of  surprise  at  their  unexpected  use.  Examples 
of  the  employment  of  nouns  and  adjectives  in  the  r61e  of  the 
"mot  juste",  which  produce  an  impressive  but  by  no  means 
labored  effect,  will  be  found  in  the  next  citation  from  Le  Sang 
des  races.  Such  examples  are:  "la  bande  blanche  de  la  route", 
"le  reseau  fr^le  des  vapeurs"  and  "cette  heure  etait  vraiment 
feminine." 

Both  writers  use  descriptions  of  nature  and  of  landscapes  to 
motivate  the  action  of  their  stories,  which  is  advanced  by  exalting 
the  sentiments  or  modifying  the  characters  of  the  actors  in 
these  tales.  In  the  works  of  Louis  Bertrand,  as  one  critic  has 
so  aptly  phrased  it,  descriptions  are  the  action  itself;  the  effect 
of  objects  upon  human  beings.  Each  of  the  pictures  which 
M.  Bertrand  has  painted,  seemingly  only  to  please  the  eye,  is 
found  reflected  in  the  hearts  of  his  characters  in  the  form  of 
images  which  are  translated  into  action.  ^  Flaubert's  doctrine  of 
"art  for  art's  sake,"  however,  permits  him  to  indulge  in  much 
longer  and  more  detailed  descriptions  that  his  disciple  cares  to 
use.  The  famous  picture  of  sunrise  over  Carthage  which  begins. 
"Mais  une  barre  lumineuse  s'eleva  du  cote  de  I'Orient''^  is  too 
well  known  to  need  quotation  here.  ^  The  contemplation  of  the 
splendors  of  the  city  awakes  the  covetousness  of  Spendius,  who 
remarks  to  Matho,  "Ah!  quelles  richesses!  et  les  hommes  qui 
les  poss^dent  n'ont  pas  meme  de  fer  pour  les  defendre ! ' '  The  glory 
of  the  scene  which  he  has  witnessed  reacts  in  a  different  way 
upon  the  soul  of  the  latter,  and,  disdaining  the  cupidity  of  his 
servant,  the  negro  chieftain  dreams  of  Salammbo  with  a  more 
intense  longing  than  before.  * 

1  Fidus,  locus  cit. 

2  Salammbo,  p,  21. 

'  The  selection  is  cited  by  Sainte-Beuve,  Nouveaux  Lundis,  IV,  p.  49,  and 
by  Louis  Bertrand,  Gustave  Flaubert,  p.  158. 
*  Salammbo,  pp.  22,  23,  24. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     87 

Similarly;  one  morning  as  Rafael  is  approaching  a  wayside 
inn,  he  catches  a  glimpse  of  a  certain  Carmen,  a  waitress  in  the 
tavern,  and  by  no  means  a  stranger  to  him:  "Les  montagnes 
de  Boghar  se  revetaient  de  lilas  et  d'or,  les  terres,  a  perte  de  vue, 
refl6taient  les  nuances  changeantes  de  I'air,  et  la  bande  blanche 
de  la  route  qui  s'enfonce  vers  le  desert  de  Bougzoul  semblait 
conduire  a  un  pays  d'enchantements  et  de  prestiges.  Les 
reflets  nacres  de  I'orieht  se  muaient  en  opales  et  en  amethystes 
aux  transparences  indecises.  On  ne  distinguait  pas  encore  les 
montagnes  de  Guelt-es-Stel.  Cependant  les  contours  des  choses 
restaient  nets  et  lumineux.  A  travers  le  r6seau  frele  des  vapeurs 
matinales,  la  courbe  de  I'horizon  se  dessinait  sur  le  ciel  comme 
les  bords  d'une  mer  calme. 

*'Au  millieu  de  tous  ces  voiles  qui  flottaient  dans  I'air  a  cette 
heure  de  crepuscule,  Rafael  sentait  son  corps  allege  et  sa  pensee 
plus  agile.  Le  sang  rafraichi  par  I'aube,  il  \  oyait  se  lever  devant 
lui  des  promesses  de  felicites  si  belles  qu'elles  faisaient  bondir 
sa  marche.  Cette  heure  etait  vraiment  feminine,  enveloppante 
et  tendre,  comme  si  I'influence  de  Carmen  se  fGt  melee  aux 
d61ices  de  I'air,  au  jeu  voluptueux  des  formes  et  de  la 
lumiere.  .  .  ."  ^ 

Here  a  comparison  of  artistic  excellence  between  the  two 
passages  is  needless,  for  both  seem  to  have  attained  absolute 
perfection.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  relative  importance 
of  the  actions  motivated  by  the  two  scenes  described,  the  advan- 
tage is  all  with  Flaubert,  for  the  intensification  of  the  will  of 
Spendius  to  power  and  plunder,  and  of  Matho  to  possess 
Salammb6  has  more  effect  upon  the  plot  of  the  story  than  in 
Le  Sang  des  races,  in  which  Rafael  simply  engages  in  one  more 
of  a  score  of  amorous  adventures.  It  almost  seems  as  though 
Louis  Bertrand  himself  had  been  moved  by  his  own  marvellous 
description,  for  the  love  scene  which  follows  between  Rafael 
and  Carmen  is  one  of  the  most  vividly  realistic  which  can  be 
imagined. 

Both  in  Salammho  and  in  the  Cycle  africain  material  things, 

1  Le  Sang  des  races,  pp.  207,  208. 


f8  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

and  especially  garments,  are  used  as  symbols.  Thus  the  za'imph 
symbolizes  the  power  of  Carthage,  while  the  smock  of  Rafael, 
the  traditional  garment  of  the  carter,  represents  the  love  of  the 
Neo-African  for  the  desert  highway,  and  the  silk  cap  of  Balthasar 
typifies  the  fondness  for  display  characteristic  of  the  Latin  of 
Africa.  M.  Bertrand  observes  that  for  him,  "la  cuirasse  et  le 
casque  d'Hector  n'ont  pas  plus  de  splendeur  .  .  que  la  blouse 
de  Rafael  ou  la  casquette  de  Balthasar."  ^ 

Turning  from  a  comparison  between  Flaubert  and  Louis 
Bertrand  in  questions  of  details  of  style  to  similarities  of  a  more 
general  nature,  we  find  that  the  African  works  of  both  have  been 
characterized  as  distinctly  romantic  in  tendency.  Emile  Faguet 
believes  that  Salammbo  and  La  Tentation  de  Samt  Antoi7:.e  are 
the  expression  of  the  romantic  side  of  Flaubert,  a  phase  of  his 
work  largely  due  to  his  love  of  imaginative  dreaming.  ^  In 
speaking  of  Louis  Bertrand,  M.  Ernest-Charles  seems  to  have 
expressed  a  somewhat  exaggerated  viewpoint  when  he  says  that 
novels  of  the  Cycle  africain  show  the  "lyrisme  debordant,  le 
pittoresque  torrentueux,  la  fougueuse  passion,  la  violence 
coloree  naturelle  a  un  jeune  romantique  attarde."  ^  I  prefer 
the  opinion  which  Lucien  Maury,  the  most  careful  critic  of  Louis 
Bertrand,  has  expressed  of  his  earlier  work.  M.  Maury  believes 
that  in  the  Cycle  africain  its  author  showed  a  tumultuous  abun- 
dance of  picturesque  gifts:  an  exuberant  sense  of  color  and  an 
ardent  and  exact  understanding  of  the  violent  and  passionate 
side  of  life.  ■»  The  eloquent,  and  on  the  whole  accurate  estimate 
of  Louis  Bertrand  made  by  Fidus  might  well  be  applied  to  the 
author  of  Salammbo.  The  critic  compares  M.  Bertrand  to  a 
sculptor,  who  carves  startling  bas-reliefs  from  solid  blocks  of 
unknown  and  stubborn  material,  and  extracts  from  unexplored 

*  Pepele  et  Balthasar,  Preface,  p.  5. 

2  Emile  Faguet,  opus  cit,  p.  42. 

3  J.  Ernest-Charles,  La  Revue  Bleue,  5th  Series,  Vol.  II,  September  10,  1904. 

*  Lucien  Maury,  De  Peplle  le  Bien-Aime  d  Saint  Augustin,  Revue  Bleue, 
51st  year,  2d  Sem.,  November  22,  1913.  In  the  second  edition  M.  Bertrand 
changed  the  name  of  his  fourth  novel  to  Pephte  et  Balthasar. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     89 

depths  a  whole  world  of  complex  and  moving  things — a  world 
made  up  of  all  the  brutal  realities  and  all  the  discordant  aspira 
tions  of  struggling  humanity,  and  he  reconciles  all  of  these 
elements  in  the  harmonious  rhythm  of  life.  ^  When  Florian- 
Parmentier  observes  that  the  broad  visions  of  the  synthetic 
novels  of  Louis  Bertrand,  by  freeing  their  author  from  the 
tyranny  of  detail,  have  thrown  into  striking  relief  his  epic  poem 
of  the  Mediterranean  peoples,  ^  the  critic  suggests  to  me  an 
important  point  in  which  M.  Bertrand  has  surpassed  Flaubert. 
For  while  Salammbo  shows  a  "broad  vision",  it  is  likely  to 
produce  an  effect  of  monotony,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
action,  by  its  endless  accumulation  of  details.  Louis  Bertrand 
does  not  run  this  risk;  thus  his  principal  characters,  with  their 
salient  traits,  stand  out  more  vividly  than  those  of  Flaubert, 
just  as  a  cathedral  in  a  vast  open  space  leaves  a  clearer  imprint 
upon  the  memory  than  one  closely  surrounded  by  many  lesser 
structures. 

The  direct  influence  of  Sala^nmbo  upon  the  style  and  the 
literary  methods  of  Louis  Bertrand  is  much  more  apparent  in 
Le  Sang  des  races  than  in  the  later  novels  of  the  Cycle  africain. 
In  La  Cina  it  is  shown  only  by  a  very  few  direct  references.  In 
Pep  He  et  Balthasar  there  is  at  least  one  passage  which  suggests 
rather  directly  a  similar  one  in  Salammbo.  A  comparison  of  the 
two  will  exemplify  in  more  detail  a  point  which  has  already  been 
mentioned;  the  sensitiveness  of  both  novelists  to  odors.  Thus, 
as  Pepete  is  wandering  through  a  narrow  street  of  the  native 
quarter  of  Algiers:  "...  dans  le  courant  d'air  des  ruelles  toutes 
pleines  de  boutiques,  il  venait  des  bouffees  de  graillons  et  d'huile 
ranee,  des  ralents  de  saumure,  des  effluves  de  safran,  de  piment 
rouge,  d'anis  et  de  cumin  .  .  .  ,  des  fumees  d'encens,  de  kif, 
de  pastilles  du  serail;  .  .  .  Pepete  se  delectait  dans  cette 
atmosphere  capiteuse  .  .  .  il  se  laissait  glisser  ...  a  cette  vie 
tres    antique  .  .  .  qui   fait  voisiner  les  rales  du   rut  avec   les 

*  Fidus,  locus  cit. 

*  Florian-Parmentier,  La  Litterature  et  VEpoque,  pp.  514,  528. 


90  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

genuflections  de  la  pri^re  et  qui  mele  les  essences  suaves  aux 
exhalations  de  la  pourriture."  ^ 

When  Hamilcar  visits  his  workshops,  he  enters  the  room 
where  perfumes  are  manufactured.  "Du  myrobalon,  du  bdel- 
lium, du  safran  et  desviolettes  en  debordaient.  .  .  .  on  6touffait 
dans  les  senteurs,  malgr6  les  tourbillons  de  styrax  qui  gresillait 
au  milieu  sur  un  trepied  d'airain.  ...  Le  Chef  des  odeurs 
suaves  .  .  .  s'avanga  vers  Hamilcar."  2 

In  La  Concession  de  Madame  Petitgand  there  is  nothing  which 
can  be  definitely  cited  as  having  been  suggested  by  Flaubert. 
In  general,  it  may  safely  be  said  that  Louis  Bertrand  has  found 
in  Salammho  a  source  of  inspiration  rather  than  material  for 
imitation.  Some  of  the  points  in  which  the  two  writers  seem 
most  closely  in  contact  are  probably  to  be  explained  by  the  fact 
that  they  have  laid  the  scenes  of  their  novels  in  the  same  land, 
and  have  treated  many  of  the  same  types  of  primitive  men. 
For  those  elements  of  his  style  which  contribute  most  to  the 
beauty  and  originality  of  his  novels,  Louis  Bertrand  is  indebted 
much  less  to  Flaubert  than  to  his  own  robust  and  original  genius. 

1  PepHe  et  Balthasar,  p.  130. 

2  Salammbo,  p.  178. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     91 


VII 

A  Critical  Estimate  of  the  African  Novels  of 
Louis  Bertrand 

Like  Flaubert,  his  disciple  ^  has  painted  Africa  and  its  people 
with  great  intensity  of  color  and  relief,  ^  but  has  added  a  note  of 
love  and  hope  to  the  dark  picture  of  strife  and  cruelty  presented 
in  Salammbo.  Flaubert,  in  writing  the  book,  was  guided  only 
by  the  ideal  of  art  for  art's  sake,  ^  while  Louis  Bertrand  declares 
that  he  has  devoted  his  life  to  illustrating,  developing  and 
presenting  in  all  of  its  phases  the  idea  of  the  union  of  the  Latin 
peoples,  as  being  the  only  means  of  revivifying  them  and  of 
rendering  to  them  the  preponderant  place  which  they  once  held 
in  the  world.  <  Flaubert,  detesting  present  reality,  undertook 
the  writing  of  Salammbo  as  a  means  of  escaping  from  it,  ^ 
while  his  disciple  prefers  to  paint  life  in  its  most  living  and  most 
active  phases.  In  spite  of  these  wide  divergences  of  aim,  there 
are  certain  minor  points  in  which  the  content  of  the  works  of 
Louis  Bertrand,  like  his  style,  shows  similarities  to  that  of  Flau- 
bert. Thus,  the  well-known  hatred  of  Flaubert  for  the  bour- 
geoisie has  a  parallel  in  two  of  M.  Bertrand's  early  novels, '' 

^  Lucien  Maury,  De  Flaubert  d  Paul  Adam,  Revue  Bleue,  60th  year,  1st 
sem.,  January  21,  1922.  The  critic  observes  that  no  one  will  deny  that 
Louis  Bertrand  is  the  spiritual  son  of  Flaubert,  Louis  Lefebvre,  locus  cit., 
declares  that  M.  Bertrand  continues  rather  than  imitates  the  work  of  Flau- 
bert. 

2  In  La  Correspondance  de  Gustave  Flaubert,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  274  (Croisset, 
January  26,  1861)  Flaubert  writes  to  Michelet  that  from  his  (the  latter's) 
works  he  drew  "couleur  et  relief". 

3  Flaubert,  Ibid.,  p.  30,  (To  L.  Bouilhet,  Croisset,  May  10,  1855)  and  p.  164, 
(To  Mile,  de  Chantepie,  Paris,  January  23,  1858). 

*  Louis  Bertrand,  Les  pays  m editerran  eens  et  la  guerre,  p.  186. 
5  Flaubert,  Corr.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  85,  (To  Mme.  des  Genettes,  1856)  and  p.  181, 
(To  Mile,  de  Chantepie,  Croisset,  July  11,  1858). 

^  La  Cina,  pp.  314,  335.     Le  Rival  de  don  Juan,  p.  282. 


92  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

and  in  the  fact  that  nearly  all  of  the  characters  which  Louis 
Bertrand  has  drawn  with  the  most  enthusiasm  are  proletarians. 
These  proletarians,  though  seemingly  of  a  simple  psychology, 
are  inreality  quite  complicated  for  one  who  really  wishes  to  under- 
stand them,  asserts  their  creator,  ^  while  Flaubert  wrote  to  Sainte- 
Beuve,  a  propos  of  Salammbo,  "Rien  de  plus  complique  qu'un 
Barbare."  ^  The  emphasis  which  the  author  of  the  Cycle  africain 
places  upon  the  Semitic  characteristics  of  the  Carthaginian,  and 
the  ideas  which  he  develops  concerning  the  Semitization  of  the 
Neo- African,  were  probably  suggested  by  the  description  in 
Salammbo  of  the  Council  of  the  Ancients,  whose  members  were 
distinguished  especially  by  their  noses  "recourb^s  comme  ceux 
des  colosses  assyriens"  and  by  **  un  aspect  de  ruse  et  de  violence."  » 

Louis  Bertrand,  while  continuing  the  work  of  Flaubert,  in 
describing  "le  civilise  qui  se  barbarise"  (as,  Claude  in  La  Cina) 
and  the  "canaille"  who  have  flocked  to  Africa,  has  overlooked 
"le  barbare  qui  se  civilise."  In  fact  the  barbarian,  in  the  sense 
of  the  Moslem  native  of  Africa,  is  so  noticeably  absent  from  the 
works  of  the  author  of  Le  Sang  des  races  that  his  African  novels 
might  well  bear  the  sub-title:  "L*Alg6rie  sans  les  Arabes,"  as 
Andre  Bellessort  has  so  justly  observed.  <  The  only  role  which 
M.  Bertrand  assigns  to  these  natives  seems  to  be  that  of  a  sort 
of  anvil,  against  which  the  Latin  immigrant  is  to  be  tempered 
to  sufficient  hardness.  No  other  writer  who  has  treated  of 
Algeria  has  so  completely  ignored  the  native  as  has  Louis  Ber- 
trand, who  has,  in  fact,  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the 
Latin  colonist. 

M.  Bertrand's  attitude  does  not  pass  without  challenge,  for 
Charles  G^niaux,  in  the  dedication  to  his  Le  Choc  des  races,  says 
that  the  book  will  displease  "les  chantres  de  I'Afrique  latine, 
ce  beau  sujet  de  rh6torique.  Malheureusement  la  racaille 
espagnole,  sicilienne  et  calabraise,  rencontr^e  par  moi  au  Maroc, 

*  Le  Sang  des  races,  Preface,  p.  8. 

»  Flaubert,  Corr.,  Ill,  p.  ZZZ,     December  23,  24,  1862. 
»  Salammbd,  p.  148. 

*  Andr^  Bellessort,  locus  cit. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     93 

en  Alg^rie  et  en  Tunisie,  m'a  donn6  I'horreur  d'une  M6diterran6e 
latine."  This  writer  asserts  that  he  knows  the  Musselman 
intimately,  and  finds  him  superior  to  the  immigrant  from  Spain 
and  Italy.  The  French,  he  continues,  are  morally  bound  to 
defend  these  natives,  their  prot6g6s,  from  those  European 
elements  which  would  despoil  and  insult  them. '  The  point  of 
view  of  the  Tharaud  brothers,  as  Fidus  has  so  justly  observed, 
also  difTers  from  that  of  Louis  Bertrand  in  that  they  have  as- 
signed, notably  in  La  Fete  arabe,  the  "beau  role"  to  the  native, 
who  is,  for  the  author  of  La  Cina,  merely  a  dangerous  savage 
and  an  enemy  of  progress.  The  attitude  of  J6r6me  and  Jean 
Tharaud  is  based  on  sympathy  and  sentiment,  while  that  of 
M.  Bertrand  is  founded  upon  the  reason  and  the  will.' 

The  position  of  Pierre  Mille  upon  the  subject  of  the  native  is 
much  like  that  of  Louis  Bertrand.  The  latter  is  possibly  some- 
what overstating  the  attitude  of  the  author  of  Sur  la  vaste  Terre 
when  he  says  that  compared  to  Barnavaux,  ^  freed  and  ennobled 
by  centuries  of  Christian  education  and  of  traditions  of  chivalry, 
the  Annamites,  Sengalese,  Arabs  and  Moors  are  slaves  and 
"attardes".* 

It  is  natural  that  a  writer  of  strong  and  original  tempera" 
ment,  most  of  whose  heroes  are  simple  and  primitive  men, 
should,  by  certain  aspects  of  his  talent,  suggest  a  comparison 
to  Emile  Zola.  M.  Ernest-Charles  again  overstates  the  point 
he  wishes  to  make  when  he  asserts  that  M.  Bertrand  proceeds 
from  the  author  of  Germinal  more  than  from  any  other  writer, 
and  that  to  the  naturalistic  romanticism  of  the  latter,  he  adds 
simply  a  profound  knowledge  of  classical  letters,  a  taste  for 
tradition,  and  the  tranquility  of  a  happy  and  healthy  soul  to 
which  pessimism  has  not  access.  The  critic  believes  that  M. 
Bertrand  might  justly  inscribe  in  the  introductions  of  his  earlier 

'  Chades  Geniaux,  Le  Choc  des  races,  pp.  5  and  6. 

2  Fidus,  Silhouettes  contemporaines.     Jerome  et  Jean  Tharaud. ^  La  Revue 
des  Deux  Mondes,  Vol.  64,  July  15,  1921. 

5  Barnavaux  is  a  sort  of  French  version  of  Kipling's  Mulvaney. 
*  Le  Sens  de  I'Ennemi,  p.  285. 


94  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

novels  what  Zola  wrote  in  the  preface  of  Therhse  Raquin:  that 
the  book  was  a  study  of  temperaments  and  not  of  characters,  and 
that  he  had  depicted  human  beings  dominated  by  their  nerves 
and  their  blood — human  brutes  and  nothing  more.  ^  In  this 
category  should  be  included,  continues  the  critic,  Carmelo,  Pep^te 
and  even  the  cultivated  Mautoucher.  Nor  do  these  characters 
harmonize  very  well,  it  is  claimed,  with  the  professed  theory 
of  the  author  of  La  Renaissance  classique  that  the  abnormal 
and  the  monstrous  should  be  excluded  from  the  novel.  2 

In  speaking  of  Pepete  ,  M.  Ernest-Charles  gently  admonishes 
the  young  author  not  to  seek  for  his  books,  which  now  please  the 
discriminating,  the  favor  of  readers  spiritually  related  to  the 
mistresses  of  the  young  fisherman.  In  this  connection  a  dis- 
tinguished churchman  and  man  of  letters,  while  deploring 
certain  liberties  of  description  in  the  earlier  movels  of  Louis 
Bertrand,  classes  him  now  as  among  the  best  and  most  sincere 
of  Catholic  writers.  ^  Mindful,  possibly,  of  some  of  the  criticism 
of  Pepete,  one  of  his  favorite  characters,  M.  Bertrand  defends 
his  creation  stoutly,  saying  that  the  sardine  fisherman  is  a 
colonizer,  a  founder  of  cities  and  of  races,  who  can  on  occasion 
be  a  hero,  as  he  was  in  the  past  war.  ^ 

Louis  Bertrand's  novels  treat  the  relations  of  the  sexes  in  a 
fearlessly  realistic  manner.  Robert  Randau,  in  a  letter  to  the 
writer  of  this  paper,  expresses  the  not  altogether  unfounded 
apprehension  that  foreign  readers  of  M.  Bertrand  may  be 
struck  by  the  almost  universal  sensuality  of  the  "barbares". 
But  he  forewarns  us  that  they  are  "des  gens  pour  qui  I'amour  est 
une  fonction  au  meme  titre  que  le  boire  et  le  manger."  While 
M.  Randau's  characterization  of  "Tamour"  is  an  accurate  one 
as  applied  to  the  earlier  adventures  of  Rafael  and  P6p^te,  yet 
when  these  young  men  are  ready  to  establish  themselves  they 
choose  wives  who  seem  likely  to  conform  to  accepted  standards 
of  their  class,  and  to  become  good  comrades  and  helpmates. 

1  Emile  Zola,  ThSrkse  Raquin,  Preface,  p.  II. 

'  J.  Ernest-Charles,  locus  cit. 

'  Canon  Halflants,  locus  cit. 

*  Les  pays  mediterranSens  el  la  guerre,  p.  19. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     95 

Most  readers  of  the  Cycle  africain  will  probably  agree  with 
Fidus,  who  believes  that  the  portraits  which  Louis  Bertrand 
has  traced  are  really  those  of  an  ^lite,  who  form  a  sort  of  pro- 
letarian aristocracy  either  of  beauty,  of  strength  or  of  activity, 
and  are  always  examples  of  a  jealously  independent  individuality. 
These  characters,  continues  the  critic,  are  simple  only  for  those 
who  do  not  know  how  to  understand  them.  M.  Bertrand's 
workmen,  impulsive  and  thievish,  with  their  confused  and 
violent  discussions,  their  conflicts  of  interests,  of  races  and  of 
social  castes,  their  outbursts  of  vanity,  their  fits  of  imperious 
dignity,  are  as  living,  complex  and  mobile  as  the  waves  that 
bathe  the  shores  of  their  country.  The  reader  does  not  feel 
that  he  is  in  the  presence  of  proletarians  manufactured  by 
literature  to  produce  an  antithesis  to  the  bourgeois.  Louis 
Bertrand's  heroes  are  so  human  that  there  is  no  entirely  admirable 
character  among  them,  nor  any  In  whom  there  is  nothing  to  be 
liked.  ^  Thus  Pelissier  is  at  first  depicted  as  being  something 
of  a  rascal,  yet  his  good  temper  and  courage  soon  win  the  respect 
of  the  reader. 

M.  Bertrand,  admiringly  declares  Louis  Lefebvre,  is,  like 
Balzac,  a  master  psychologist.  The  study  which  the  author  of 
the  Cycle  africain  makes  of  the  human  soul  is  direct,  firm  and 
clear,  like  his  style.  He  seizes  the  soul,  locates  it  in  the  place 
and  epoch  which  he  has  chosen,  follows  it,  constrains  it  gently, 
and  only  abandons  this  soul  when  it  has  given  up  all  of  its 
truth  in  accordance  with  his  own  lucid  will.  2  Lucien  Maury's 
commendation  of  Louis  Bertrand  as  a  psychologist,  though 
not  quite  so  unreserved  as  the  above,  will  probably  appeal  more 
strongly  to  most  readers  of  the  Cycle  africai^i.  Conscientious 
artist  that  he  is,  writes  the  critic,  M.  Bertrand  penetrates  souls, 
not  to  dissect  them  coldly,  but  to  make  them  live  and  act  before 
our  eyes,  and  to  move  and  exalt  us  by  contact  with  adventures, 

^  Fidus,  Silhouettes  contemporaines.  M.  Louis  Bertrand.  La  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes,  Vol.  63,  June  15,  192L  The  critic  must  have  forgotten  Philippe 
Nondedeo. 

'  Louis  Lefebvre,  locus  cit. 


96  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

thoughts  and  sentiments.  The  novelist,  by  the  skillful  use  of 
variety,  by  his  love  of  colorful  detail  and  by  his  understanding 
of  the  humble  difificulties  of  life,  communicates  to  us  an  intense 
impression  of  the  reality  of  his  heroes. '  The  following  opinion  of 
Jules  Bertaut  does  not  seem  to  be  fundamentally  in  contra- 
diction with  that  of  M.  Maury,  but  rather  to  present  in  a  vigorous 
form  a  different  and  enlarged  phase  of  somewhat  the  same  idea. 
While  admitting  that  Louis  Bertrand  paints  well  the  gestures 
and  the  actions  which  are  the  key  to  the  soul,  M.  Bertaut  thinks 
that  the  novelist  dislikes  to  analyze  the  soul  itself.  The 
exterior  type  of  life  so  characteristic  of  the  South  has  so  fas- 
cinated the  author  of  the  Cycle  africain  that  he  scarcely  per- 
ceives the  interior  world,  and  must  have  movement  in  order 
to  be  able  to  create  living  images.  Louis  Bertrand,  continues 
the  critic,  needs  to  depict  his  heroes  in  the  act  of  putting  forth 
an  immense  effort,  in  open  spaces,  under  the  bright  sunlight, 
if  he  is  to  display  to  the  best  advantage  his  powerful  genius.  ^ 

Upon  the  question  of  the  reality  of  the  African  characters  of 
M.  Bertrand,  and  their  trueness  to  life,  the  opinion  of  literary 
men  who  are  natives  of  the  country  is  of  considerable  impor- 
tance. The  principal  critic  and  historian  of  North  African 
letters,  M.  Arthur  Pellegrin,  in  a  letter  to  the  writer  of  this 
paper,  says  of  Louis  Bertrand :  "II  se  distingue  surtout  par  son 
style  chaud  et  colore,  plutot  que  par  la  verite  et  le  relief  de  ses 
personnages.  Pour  qui  connait  le  milieu  qu'il  a  voulu  etudier, 
ses  romans  sont  peu  representatifs,  dans  leur  ensemble,  de  la  vie 
nord-africaine.  II  montre  par  endroits  des  qualites  d'observa- 
tion  et  un  certain  soin  du  detail  pittoresque  qui  renforcent 
I'intrigue  un  peu  l§,che  de  ses  oeuvres  d'imagination.  II  excelle 
dans  la  description   romantique  a  grandes  fresques''  lyriques. 

^  Lucien  Maury,  De  PSpkte  le  Bien-AimS  d  Saint  AugusUn,  Revue  BleuCt 
51st  year,  2d  Sem.  November  22,  1913. 

2  Jules  Bertaut,  opus  cit.,  pp.  128-131. 

^  In  outlining  the  development  of  the  ideal  classical  novel,  Louis  Bertrand 
uses  the  same  word  as  M.  Pellegrin,  saying  that:".  .  .  I'ccuvre  se  d6veloppe 
comme  une  fresque  et  comme  le  fronton  d'un  temple."  La  Renaissance 
classigue,  p.  32. 


A  PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     97 

A  cet  6gard  son  ouvrage  Les  Villes  d'or  est  caracteristique. 

"A  notre  point  de  vue  Louis  Bertrand  est  un  tcrivain  de 
valeur,  un  auteur  exotique,  rattach6  seulement  au  mouvement 
litt^raire  nord-africain  par  les  sujets  qu'il  a  traites  et  non  par 
sa  maniere,  ses  qualit^s  ou  ses  d^fauts." 

Robert  Randau  would  certainly  not  agree  with  this  estimate, 
for  he  includes  Louis  Bertrand  in  a  small  list  of  French  writers 
who  have  depicted  "maints  personnages  muscles  et  vivants, 
bien  de  notre  pays,"  and  who  have  described  in  their  books 
"de  justes  africanites".  ^  These  ideas  are  further  developed  in 
a  letter  which  M.  Raudau  has  written  to  me  from  the  French 
Soudan,  where  he  holds  an  important  administrative  position. 
He  says  of  Louis  Bertrand:  **.  .  .  j'ai  une  grande  admiration 
pour  les  livres  de  cet  ecrivain  qui,  avec  une  intensite  remarquable, 
a  revele  a  la  France  les  harmonies  du  monde  m6diterraneen,  et 
la  joie  de  vivre  de  la  race  nouvelle  qui  se  brasse  en  Algerie.  .  .  . 
nous  (le  peuple  neo-africain)  sommes  des  jeunes,  nous  avons  des 
dents  longues,  nous  habitons  un  pays  dur,  ou  nous  ne  prosperons 
qu'  a  force  d'energie.  Mais  nous  prosperons.  Nos  ambitions 
sont  terre  a  terre,  mais  precises,  et  nous  savons  ce  que  nous 
voulons:  nous  vouloiis  etre,  nous  le  voulons  avec  ferocity. 

"Louis  Bertrand  est  venu  tater  le  pouls  a  la  nouvelle  Afrique; 
il  I'a  trouvee  plus  puissante  que  belle;  il  a  eu  raison;  nous  allions 
en  nous  I'obstination  farouche  du  paysan  berbere  a  I'astuce  du 
Carthaginois,  a  I'esprit  d'ordre  du  Romain,  a  I'esprit  d'aventure 
de  TArabe,  au  fanatisme  de  I'Espagnol.  Helas!  il  nous 
manque  le  sens  de  I'esthetique.  Nos  paysages  ne  sont  que 
lumiere;  nous  autres  Africains  en  restons  bien  facheusement  k 
I'ombre. 

"Ce  sont  des  scenes  de  notre  vie  intime  que  vous  trouverez 
dans  Bertrand;  il  a  pris  des  modeles  autour  de  lui;  il  a  vecu  avec 

1  Robert  Randau,  Le  mouvement  litteraire  dans  V Afrique  du  Nord,  Belles- 
Lettres,  (Paris)  for  November,  1920.  Note:  Lucien  Maury,  in  Litterature 
coloniale.  Revue  Bleue,  50th  year,  1st  Sem.,  February  17,  1912,  while  depre- 
cating the  crudeness  of  the  style  of  the  novels  of  M.  Randau,  accords  a  grudg- 
ing but  sincere  admiration  to  the  vigor  of  his  talent. 


98  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

eux,  il  a  cherche  notre  ^me.  .  .  .  Tout,  dans  Bertrand  crle 
la  splendeur  plastlque  de  nos  climats;  il  les  aime,  il  est  sincere 
dans  sa  passion,  et  c'est  pour  cela  qu'il  a  ecrit  de  la  beaut6.  .  ." 
The  characteristics  of  the  Neo- African,  as  enumerated  by 
M.  Randau,  are  the  result  of  the  desperate  struggle  which  the 
colonist  is  obliged  to  wage  for  his  very  existence.  These  charac- 
teristics, with  the  exception  of  the  "fanatisme  de  I'Espagnol" 
are  all  exemplified  in  the  hero  of  La  Concessio7i  de  Madame 
Petitgatid.  This  novel,  alone  of  the  Cycle  africain,  has  as  its 
central  idea  the  portrayal  of  the  fascinating  drama  of  this 
struggle  for  existence.  It  marks  the  transition  from  the  first 
manner  of  its  author,  the  "roman  de  moeurs",  as  illustrated 
in  his  first  four  novels,  to  the  historical  novel  of  his  second  and 
present  period.  ^  The  action  in  this  tale,  and  in  the  historical 
novels  which  follow  it,  is  of  a  different  type  from  that  in  the 
first  three  of  the  Cycle  africain.  Pelissier,  unlike  Pepete,  is 
more  than  the  living  symbol  of  the  obscure  forces  of  nature. 
He  does  not  drift  helplessly  at  the  command  of  his  instincts,  or 
under  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  but  acts  in  accordance 
with  plans  which  he  has  definitely  thought  out.  He  struggles 
bravely  against  an  adverse  fate,  and  his  failure,  in  which  lies 
the  tragedy  of  the  drama,  will  arouse  the  sympathy  of  those 
readers  who  have  at  some  time  waged  an  unsuccessful  fight 
for  a  coveted  end,  and  who  can  thus  identify  their  emotions 
with  those  of  the  unfortunate  colonist.  This  new  tendency 
towards  the  emphasis  of  the  subjectively  human  interest  element 
of  the  plot  is  even  more  clearly  marked  in  the  historical  novels 
of  the  author. 

That  his  African  novels  have  had  a  considerable  influence 
is  attested  by  the  fact  that  the  name  of  Louis  Bertrand  is  famous 
throughout  South  Algeria.     To  the  very  confines  of  the  desert 

*  In  Une  Evolution  nouvelle  du  Roman  historique,  Revue  de  Paris,  28th  year, 
Vol.  Ill,  May  15,  1921,  M.  Bertrand  sustains  the  thesis  that  the  only  real 
difference  between  the  novel  of  manners  and  the  historical  novel  is  that  the 
action  of  the  former  takes  place  in  the  present,  and  that  of  the  latter  in  the 
past. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     99 

his  heroes  are  legendary,  one  of  his  critics  tells  us,  and  there 
are  now  in  the  country  wayside  inns  bearing  the  name  of  PepHe 
ei  Balthasar.  The  admirers  of  the  author  of  the  Cycle  africain, 
especially  numerous  among  the  youth  of  France,  continues  the 
critic,  find  in  his  books  a  source  of  renewal  of  vitality  and  enthu- 
siasm. He  has  enlarged  the  horizon  of  his  countrymen  by 
directing  towards  action,  which  generates  virtues,  and  towards 
observation  of  realities,  which  dissipates  Utopias,  the  anxious 
dreams  of  many  young  men.  In  preaching  Africa  to  the  youth 
of  France,  M.  Bertrand  directed  them  to  the  best  possible  school 
of  enterprise  and  of  will.  ^ 

The  doctrines  and  the  work  of  Louis  Bertrand,  in  the  opinion 
of  M.  Maury,  tend  to  incorporate  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
French  an  activity,  an  object  and  virtues  of  whose  fecundity 
and  amplitude  they  have  long  been  unaware.  It  is  true  that  the 
idea  of  Latinity  cannot  triumph  in  Africa  without  coming  to  an 
understanding  with  the  Moslem  native,  and  that  Louis  Bertrand 
does  not  tell  us  how  this  is  to  be  brought  about.  Nor  is  it  his 
task  to  do  so,  for  the  artist  creates  values  which  enrich  and 
multiply  life;  he  procreates  turbulent  children  whose  destiny 
he  cannot  foresee.  It  is  the  duty  of  statesmanship  to  follow 
up  this  progeny,  to  assign  to  it  a  useful  role,  and  to  derive  all 
possible  benefit  from  its  efforts.  2 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century  Louis  Bertrand  has,  says  a  friend 
of  his  early  manhood,  labored  for  the  advancement  and  the 
honor  of  Latin  civilization,  and  has  striven  to  fortify  among 
the  Mediterranean  peoples  the  sentiment  of  fraternity  which 
formerly  united  them.  His  whole  work  celebrates  the  grandeur 
of  Mediterranean  civilization,  and  strengthens  in  his  countrymen 
the  faith  which  they  should  have  in  their  destiny.  ^ 

^  Fidus,  locus  cit. 

-  Lucien  Maury,  Louis  Bertrand^  imperialiste,  Revue  Bleue,  59th  year, 
June  18,  1921. 

»  Andre  Bellessort,  locus  cit. 


100  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

VIII 

Conclusion 

"...  Every  work  of  art  is,  at  bottom,  unique,  and  it  is  the 
business  of  the  critic  not  to  label  it  and  pigeon-hole  it,  but  to 
seek  for  its  inner  intent  and  content,  and  to  value  it  according 
as  that  intent  is  carried  out  and  that  content  is  valid  and  worth 
while."  ^  Taking  as  a  measure  of  the  "intent"  of  Louis  Ber- 
trand  the  doctrines  which  he  has  so  conscientiously  elaborated, 
let  us  examine  briefly  those  phases  of  their  application  in  his 
novels  which  have  not  been  fully  dealt  with  in  the  two  preceding 
chapters. 

In  Le  Sang  des  races  its  author  was  undoubtedly  constantly 
mindful  of  his  evident  purpose  to  continue  the  unfinished  African 
epic  where  Flaubert  left  it  off,  for  the  Mediterranean  mer- 
cenaries are  depicted  as  struggling  for  the  rich  plunder  of  this 
country  which  is  so  full  of  the  good  things  of  life.  The  energetic 
barbarian  peoples  the  novel  in  force,  but  unfortunately  there 
are  almost  no  Frenchmen  in  it  to  be  revitalized  by  cbrttact  with 
him.  Ramon,  Rafael  and  others,  perfect  types  of  their  kind, 
are  presented  under  a  variety  of  circumstances,  and  when  the 
author  leaves  them,  have  accomplished  a  marked  and  genuine 
progress,  within  the  measure  of  their  abilities. 

La  Cina  and  its  sequel,  Le  Rival  de  don  Juan,  testify  to  the 
beginning  of  a  struggle  in  the  mind  of  their  author  between 
Flaubert's  precept  of  impersonality,  and  the  desire  on  the  part 
of  Louis  Bertrand  to  advocate  theories  which  were  increasing 
in  number  and  definiteness  under  the  influence  of  his  own 
studies  and  observations,  and  of  the  pressure  from  without  of 

1  Thus  does  H.  L.  Mencken  {Prejudices,  First  Series,  p.  212)  summarize  a 
favorite  doctrine  of  Goethe  and  Carlyle.  This  most  trenchant  if  unorthodox 
of  American  critics  continues:  "This  is  the  precise  opposite  of  the  academic 
critical  attitude.  The  professor  is  nothing  if  not  a  maker  of  card-indexes; 
he  must  classify  or  be  damned." 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     101 

the  doctrines  of  the  renascence  of  national  energy.  Of  course, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  the  characters  of  the  book  who  express 
the  same  ideas  as  those  which  their  creator  champions,  are 
depicted  as  being  highly  educated  men,  and  the  "logic  of  their 
characters"  might  account  for  their  conceptions.  It  is  at  least 
possible  that  Louis  Bertrand  often  heard  discussed  about  him 
such  theories  as  that  of  Latin  continuity  and  of  barbarization, 
or  even  that  he  acquired  these  doctrines  in  part  by  frequenting 
certain  circles  of  Algerian  society.  ^  Claude  is  the  only  character 
in  the  book  to  realize  any  marked  progress  in  that  he  finds  his 
vocation  in  life.  He  is  also  the  only  Frenchman  of  the  Cycle 
africain  to  re-barbarize  himself,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word, 
and  this  rather  by  travel  and  the  influence  of  the  sage  advice 
of  the  sturdy  Alsatian  farmer  than  by  contact  with  any  par- 
ticular barbarians. 

It  is  also  this  Alsatian,  Schirrer,  who  advocates  a  fair  and 
humane  treatment  of  the  Arab.  Possibly  M.  Bertrand  had  in 
mind  the  doctrines  advocated  by  this  colonist  when  he  says  that 
if  novelists  are  coming  to  consider  the  Arab  as  a  social  being, 
rather  than  as  a  subject  of  picturesque  description,  the  change 
in  attitude  may  be  due  to  the  battle  which  he  himself  has  waged 
against  romantic  exotism.  - 

Neither  Pepete,  Balthasar,  nor  any  of  the  other  characters 
portrayed  in  M.  Bertrand's  fourth  novel  are  of  a  sufficiently 
high  mentality  to  understand  or  to  express  the  more  literary 
and  historical  ideas  of  the  novelist.  While  it  is  true  that  these 
Africans  are  perfect  specimens  of  their  type,  yet  the  symbolic 
beauty  of  this  type  is  likely  to  escape  readers  who  are  unfor- 
tunately not  endowed  with  any  very  high  degree  of  poetic 
imagination. 

^  Compare  in  the  preface  to  La  Cina,  p.  IX,  "  Je  m'en  tiens  a  la  methode 
strictement  impersonnelle  qu'inaugurerent  les  maitres  du  roman  vers  la 
seconde  moitie  du  XIXe  siecle,  et  qui  consiste  uniquement  k  representer. 
Je  n'ai  fait  que  repeter  sous  une  forme  litteraire  ce  que  j'avais  entendu  autour 
de  moi,  ou  conformer  la  pensee  de  mes  heros  k  la  logique  de  leurs  caracteres." 

2  Le  Sens  de  I'Ennemi,  p.  209. 


102  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 

In  La  Concession  de  Madame  Petitgand,  its  author  seems  to 
have  kept  steadily  in  mind  Flaubert's  precept  of  impersonality, 
for  there  is  no  "preaching  or  moralizing"  in  the  book.  Also, 
P^lissier  is  rather  a  fine  type,  not  far  from  being  an  "accom- 
plished example",  and  barbarized  only  to  the  point  of  being 
equipped  to  wage  a  successful  struggle  against  any  but  insuperable 
obstacles.  He  is  overcome,  however,  by  Philippe  Nondedeo, 
who  represents  barbarization  pushed  to  its  extreme  logical 
conclusion — a  conclusion  which  Louis  Bertrand  would  probably 
be  the  first  to  deplore. 

Strong  characters  are  most  likely  to  be  formed  by  trials, 
fatigue  and  suffering,  and  nowhere  apparently  are  these  things 
to  be  found  more  abundantly  than  in  the  African  colonies  of 
France.  Those  who  do  return  to  the  fatherland  after  a  long  stay 
in  these  colonies  will  have  been  transformed  into  men  of  will 
and  energy — future  heroes  of  the  Revenge.  ^  Certainly  after 
reading  a  book  like  La  Concession  de  Madame  Petitga7id,  none  of 
those  enumerated  as  colonial  undesirables  by  the  v/riter  of  the 
preceding  sentence:  failures,  prodigal  sons,  those  with  too  much 
imagination,  and  ideologists  ^  would  be  tempted  to  encumber 
the  colonies  with  their  presence.  Thus  such  a  book  over  and 
above  its  literary  value  might  serve  a  useful  purpose.  It  is 
possible  that  the  type  most  desirable  for  the  colonies:  the  young, 
energetic  and  vigorous  man,  with  agricultural  experience,  might, 
if  he  read  the  African  novels  of  Louis  Bertrand,  be  so  fired  by 
the  thought  of  the  obstacles  to  be  overcome  and  the  duty  he  owed 
to  France,  as  to  be  willing  to  attempt  the  adventure  of  under- 
taking a  career  in  North  Africa. 

The  fact  that  colonial  life  as  depicted  in  the  Cycle  africain  is 
so  little  likely  to  attract  any  but  those  of  superior  patriotic  or 
heroic  qualities  is  due  to  no  lack  of  talent  on  the  part  of  the 
author,  but  to  the  nature  of  his  subject:  the  harshness  of  the 
land  and  the  climate  and  the  character  of  its  native  and  European 

^  J-B  Piolet,  (S.  J.)  La  France  hors  de  France,  Notre  Emigration,  sa  Neces 
site — ses  Conditions,  (1900),  p.  85. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  335, 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     103 

inhabitants.  A  writer  of  less  scrupulous  honesty  than  M. 
Bertrand,  but  animated  as  he  is  by  the  deep-rooted  desire  to 
enhance  the  value  of  the  French  colonies,  might  have  yielded 
to  a  perfectly  natural  tendency,  and  have  softened  the  uninviting 
nature  of  the  picture  he  has  drawn.  That  Louis  Bertrand  has 
not  done  so  is  a  high  tribute  to  his  conscientiousness  as  an  artist 
and  as  an  "honnete  homme".  ^ 

M.  Bertrand  has  portrayed  colonial  life  as  he  has  seen  it, 
without  regard  for  the  result.  In  him  love  of  truth  has  been 
stronger  than  doctrine;  the  artist  has  triumphed  over  the  special 
pleader.  The  author  of  Le  Sang  des  races  has,  however,  never 
specifically  declared  it  to  be  his  purpose  to  attract  immigrants 
to  Algeria. 

Let  us,  then,  consider  a  definition  of  the  object  of  colonial 
literature  which  Louis  Bertrand  would  probably  admit  to  be  a 
standard  by  which  the  validity  of  the  content  of  his  work  might 
fairly  be  judged.  It  is  again  to  M.  Maury  to  whom  we  must 
turn  for  the  most  adequate  exposition  of  an  ideal  which  should 
animate  one  who  aspires  to  enrich  the  literature  of  the  colonies 
of  his  country.  -  The  critic  believes  that  art  and  literature 
have  as  their  supreme  mission  to  express  their  epoch,  to  be  its 
living  conscience  and  its  most  noble,  exact  and  synthetic  formula. 
Art  should  create  life,  which  in  turn  should  accompany,  encourage 
and  ask  guidance  of  art,  as  of  a  powerful  and  clear-sighted 
auxiliary.  Official  documents  are  insufficient  to  present  an 
exact  idea  of  those  countries  where  French  energies  are  being 
expended,  for  we  comprehend  a  distant  spectacle  only  by  the 
imagination  and  the  sensibility;  hence  none  but  the  writer  and 
the  artist  can  give  to  France  an  adequate  idea  of  her  colonies. 
They  alone,  in  the  midst  of  unreasonable  debauches  of  energy, 

^  Louis  Bertrand,  in  Gustave  Flaubert,  p.  259,  thus  quotes  the  master: 
"Le  don  de  I'observation  ne  f)eut  appartenir  qu'a  un  honnlte  homme.  Car, 
pour  voir  les  choses  en  elles-memes,  il  faut  n'y  porter  aucun  interet  personnel." 

2  Lucien  Maur>',  Litterature  coloniale,  Revue  Bleue,  50th  year,  1st  sem., 
February  17,  1912,  The  lines  here  cited  are  an  introduction  to  a  review  of 
books  by  Robert  Randau  and  Jean  d'Estray. 


104  THE  AFRICAN  NOVELS  OF  LOUIS  BERT  RAND 

can  discern  the  renunciation,  the  abnegation  and  the  underlying 
bases  of  reason  upon  which  are  founded  human  societies.  The 
aesthetic  and  moral  values  expressed  and  defined  by  the  novelist 
are  endowed  by  him  with  the  movement  of  life.  His  lofty 
mission  should  be,  finally,  to  examine  societies  which  are  in 
process  of  formation,  and  to  extract  from  them  a  new  beauty 
and  a  new  truth  which  he  can  present  to  the  admiration  of  his 
countrymen.  To  a  writer  capable  of  doing  these  things  it  may 
also  be  given  to  outline,  for  the  use  of  the  French  of  the  colonies, 
a  philosophy  which  will  rival  successfully  Germanic  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  imperialism — but  one  more  generous,  humane  and  more 
in  conformity  with  French  traditions. 

Such  a  "content"  is  certainly  "valid  and  worth  while".  By 
it,  as  a  measure  of  values,  the  work  of  Louis  Bertrand  should, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  writer  of  this  paper,  be  placed  in  the  very 
first  rank.  Lovers  of  artistic  and  exotic  romanticism  might 
prefer  Pierre  Loti;  admirers  of  the  Arab  and  the  vanishing 
poetry  of  his  civilization,  the  Tharaud  brothers;  seekers  of 
sensuous  adventures,  Claude  Farrere;  sentimentalists,  little 
concerned  with  style,  Charles  Geniaux;  and  those  who  are  fond 
of  quietly  humorous  studies  of  native  and  soldier  psychology 
in  the  Mulvaney  manner,  Pierre  Mille.  None,  however,  who 
has  laid  the  scenes  of  his  novels  in  the  colonies  of  France  has 
surpassed  Louis  Bertrand  in  amplitude  and  sanity  of  conception, 
solidity  and  consistency  of  construction,  and  sincerity  of  patriotic 
inspiration. 


A   PHASE  OF  THE  RENASCENCE  OF  NATIONAL  ENERGY  IN  FRANCE     JOS 


The  Works  of  Louis  Bertrand 

La  Fin  du  classicisme  et  le  retour  k  I'antique,  1897, 

Le  Sang  des  races,  1899. 

La  Cina,  1901. 

Le  Rival  de  don  Juan,  1903. 

La  Renaissance  classique,  1903. 

P6pete  et  Balthasar,  1904. 

Le  Jardin  de  la  Mort,  1905. 

L'Invasion,  1907. 

Les  Bains  de  Phalere,  1908. 

Le  Mirage  oriental,  1909. 

La  Grece  du  soleil  et  des  paysages,  1910. 

Le  Livre  de  la  Mediterranee,  1910. 

Mademoiselle  de  Jessincourt,  1911. 

Gustave  Flaubert,  1912. 

La  Concession  de  Madame  Petitgand,  1912. 

Saint  Augustin,  1913. 

Les  plus  belles  pages  de  Saint  Augustin,  1916. 

Le  Sens  de  I'Ennemi,  1917. 

Les  pays  mediterraneens  et  la  guerre,  1917. 

L'eternel  champ  de  bataille,  1917. 

Sanguis  martyrum,  1918. 

L'Infante,  1920. 

Les  Villes  d'or,  1921. 

Autour  de  Saint  Augustin,  1921. 

L'Homme  aux  rubans  couleur  de  feu,  1921. 

Flaubert  a  Paris,  ou  le  Mort  vivant,  1921. 


106 


THE  AFRICAN  NOVLES  OF  LOUIS  BERTRAND 


The  Works  of  Louis  Bertrand  Arranged  by  Cycles 


Le  Cycle  africain 


I 

Le  Sang  des  races 

VI 

II 

La  Cina 

VII 

III 

Pepete  de  Balthasar 

IV 

Le  Jardln  de  la  Mort 

VIII 

V 

La  Concession  de  Ma- 

IX 

dame  Petitgand 

X 

Saint  Augustin 

Les  plus  belles  pages  de 
Saint  Augustin 

Sanguis  martyrum 

Les  Villes  d'or 

Autour  de  Saint  Augus- 
tin 


Lb  Cycle  de  la  Mediterranee 

VI     Le  Livre  de  la  Mediter- 


I     Le  Rival  de  don  Juan 
II     L*  Invasion 

III  Les  Bains  de  Phalere 

IV  La   Grece  du   soleil   et 

des  paysages 
V     Le  Mirage  oriental 


ranee 
VII     Les       pays       mediter- 
ran^ens  et  la  guerre 
VIII     L'Infante 


I     Mademoiselle 

sincourt 
II     Le  Sens  de  I'Ennemi 


La  Terre  natale 
de    Jes- 


III     L'eternel  champ  de  ba- 
taille 


Essays  and  Criticism 


I     La  Fin  du  classicisme  et 
le  retour  k  I'antique 
II     La    Renaissance    class- 
ique 


III  Gustave  Flaubert 

IV  Flaubert  h  Paris,  ou  le 

Mort  vivant 


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STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 

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